


Your Soul in My Hands

by PhiladelphiaBurke



Category: Styx (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Animal Death, BDSM, Blow Jobs, Boot Worship, Breathplay, Character Turned Into Vampire, Codependency, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Foot Fetish, Foot Jobs, Gaslighting, Gratuitous German, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Narcissism, Original Female Character - Freeform, Please Don't Hate Me, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Psychic Bond, Satan Worship, Sex Addiction, Sociopathy, Unhealthy Relationships, Vampire Bites, Vampire Sex, Vampire Turning, animal abuse (they're vampires who consume animal blood), if they ever find this I'm toast, not intended as an allegory for the breakup of the band, some chapters actually do have plot, some dubcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:40:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 52,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22180435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhiladelphiaBurke/pseuds/PhiladelphiaBurke
Summary: Dennis is mourning his dead lover and is manipulated by charismatic vampire Tommy.  He gets a lot more than he bargained for. Chuck is a vampire hunter out for revenge. Styx Vampire AU featuring excessively florid prose, gratuitous sex and violence (and German) and some fumblings of a plot. This is fictional and totally self-indulgent. If you want to see Anne Rice on a three-day bender and a few too many Styx albums, hit that jump.
Relationships: Dennis DeYoung/Tommy Shaw, James Young/Lawrence Gowan, James Young/Original Female Character, Lawrence Gowan/Todd Sucherman, Lawrence Gowan/Tommy Shaw, Tommy Shaw/James Young
Comments: 21
Kudos: 9





	1. Background, 1977

Chapter 1: 1977

DISCLAIMER: This is a WORK OF FICTION. I do not know the people involved, and the characters are not intended to be accurate depictions of them or any relationship they have had. They do reflect the physical appearance of the people who bear their names, but that's about it. Everything else, I have nothing to blame but my perverted imagination. Larry and Todd are meant to physically be the same age, around late 20s, when they do show up. Dennis and August are meant to be the same age. I apologize for story beats that may fall under the tropes "Women in Refrigerators" or "Bury Your Gays."

It had been a year since his boyfriend passed away, but Dennis had never stopped mourning him. August had died in a car accident, before he and Dennis could come out to their families or make any concrete plans for the future. There were no ties after his unexpected passing. To the outside world, it was as if he’d never been part of Dennis’s life, never even existed. But although there were no material ties- a home, family- Dennis felt his heart was still with August. There were days where the loss weighed so heavily on him that he couldn’t leave his bed. He knew that his lover would have wanted him to move on and have a full life, but he couldn’t bring himself to give his life so completely to someone else. In fact, in the past year, he hadn’t given away so much as a kiss, and was growing increasingly isolated from his friends and family. It was reckless and foolish for Dennis to become obsessed with a stranger who looked like his dead lover, and then run off with him. Even Dennis himself had no rationalization for what he’d done.

Dennis saw the stranger performing at a bar late one night- he was just playing the guitar and singing. There was a superficial resemblance between August and the singer: they were both white, and both had a slight build and long blonde hair. Once one studied them, however, there was a marked contrast. August had been boyishly handsome and a good singer- but not a great singer. The young man Dennis saw in the bar had a hauntingly sweet voice, one that complemented his wide-eyed, ethereal appearance. No matter what he looked like, Dennis would have never forgotten that voice. The first time Dennis heard him sing, the song was a ballad - the music was soothing and romantic, but the words were hard and cynical. It was an old folk song about a woman whose lover had left her for a younger woman. Now the abandoned woman was pregnant, and felt her only choice was to end the pregnancy. Somehow, the purity of the singer’s voice made the audience ignore what was actually being said. People were smiling and leaning forward, enraptured and wanting more- it looked like they wanted to be nearer to him. Conversely, he didn’t seem to really be singing to the audience that loved him so much. Although his voice reflected the emotions of the music and lyrics, his expression never changed. Dennis didn’t know what to think until the singer looked over at him, fixing him with his blue eyes for the space of one breath. His voice, that gaze, sent a chill spreading through Dennis’s entire body. Dennis’s eyes drifted down to the man’s sensual lips. _Dear God,_ _he’s perfect,_ Dennis thought. Instantly, he realized he had overlooked his memory of August and hated himself for it. _That’s lust and loneliness talking,_ he told himself. _You’re better than that. You have to be._

He was shocked when the young man came up to him after the performance, asking very politely if he could buy Dennis a drink. Too overwhelmed to refuse, he let the singer- Tommy- sit and talk to him while he drank. The evening ended in Dennis’s car, where started to forget his shame. Softly, he kissed Tommy, telling him how much he admired his beautiful voice. Tommy thanked him and kissed him in return- but when Dennis put his hand on Tommy’s zipper, the singer stopped him before they could go any further.

“Not now,” he said in a pleading tone. His lower lip trembled; it made him seem even younger. “Please, Dennis. It’s not the right time.” Dennis’s heart went out to him: Tommy was so innocent, so gentle. He wanted to make Tommy his, but not as a conquest. He wanted to protect and care for him.

“It’s all right, I’ll stop,” Dennis said, taking the young man in his arms. “You tell me when the right time is for you. I would never pressure you.” He rested Tommy’s head on his shoulder.

“Thank you,” Tommy replied, a flutter in his voice.

Dennis came back to the club several more times and the same scenario played out. Gradually, Dennis mentioned the loss of his lover and how difficult the past year had been. When he managed to get Tommy back to his apartment, he finally worked up the courage to ask: “Tommy, I really like you. If you don’t want to be intimate with me, I can accept that. But I wish you’d tell me how you feel about all this. I’d try to understand, whatever you said.”

“You think I’m like your boyfriend who died.” Tommy said. “I’m sorry, but I’m not.” He said “I’m sorry” in a way that Dennis had never heard before- it sounded false, but not sarcastic or mean-spirited.

“I should be apologizing to you… I thought I was falling in love with you. It wasn’t real, it was some idea I had of you,” Dennis sighed. “Because I miss him. That’s not fair to the person you are, or to him. I can admit that now.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Tommy said. “Dennis, I’m not like him because I’m not human. Not anymore.”

“I don’t understand.” Dennis felt he was about to erupt in nervous laughter. “What do you mean, you’re not human?”

“I don’t have a soul,” he said quietly. “I gave it up when I got this.” He undid his shirt and pulled it down to reveal his mark: two jagged scars where his shoulder met his slender neck. “That’s what I wanted to show you.”

“Tommy, are you joking?” Dennis whispered. Tommy shook his head. Slowly, Dennis tried to say it out loud, even though he knew it was ridiculous. “That’s why you don’t have a soul…you’re a vampire?” There was no such thing. And could someone who seemed to embody youth, gentleness and innocence, be a… _monster?_ Could he have chosen to give up being human? 

“Yeah,” Tommy said nonchalantly. His eyes had lost that wide, innocent look. He leaned back in the kitchen chair the hanging lamp shining above him. Carefully, he readjusted his shirt. “Good, I don’t have to explain it. Most people don’t get it.” 

“But none of that is real! And, I mean, you’ve been out in the sun- look at you. You’re tan. You’re drinking beer, right now.”

Tommy sighed as if Dennis were boring him. “Christopher Lee movies aren’t real either, except for the fact that we drink blood. I’m tan because I was tan when I got this,” he said, indicating his neck. “Oh, and I can’t turn into a bat, so don’t make that joke.”

That last part might have been funny if Dennis hadn’t been so afraid. Now that all this had come out, Dennis’s apartment didn’t feel like his own home anymore- now that the situation was off, everything was off. He felt if someone had broken in and moved everything around. He was ready to admit that he had loved an idea, rather than a person. But this was far beyond that: he didn’t know who or _what_ Tommy was. “How do you live without a soul? Don’t you have feelings?”

“Sure,” Tommy said. Gradually, he revealed his very wide, white smile. “They change a little, but they’re there. Souls are different. Based on what I know, you don’t really need one. You don’t miss it or think about it.”

“What about when you...die?”

Tommy looked at the little tea light candle sitting on the table. He put his hand over the flame, extended his fingers downwards and pinched the flame with his fingertips, blotting it out. “How old do you think I am?”

Dennis knew where this was going. That knowledge felt like the horrible, dull pain of a bone that has just been broken in a fall. “Tommy, I don’t want to hear this. Please, stop.”

“I’m over a hundred and eighty years old,” he said. Tommy took a silver cigarette lighter out of his pocket and lit the candle again. The lighter had the word _Temptation_ engraved on it. Then he snuffed the candle out once more, driving his fingers down harder this time. “Death doesn’t worry me any more. No one like me ever worries after the first eighty years, y’know. They just start getting bored.” He took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and put the lighter down. He took a big drag, puckered up, and blew the smoke toward Dennis’s face. He shifted his shoulders and tilted his head upward, his lush hair streaming down his back. Tommy shut his eyes and his mouth parted open as if he were in ecstasy- then he stuck out his tongue and licked his full, flushed lips. He brought the cigarette back to his mouth. With deliberate slowness, he stubbed it out on his tongue. After a moment, Tommy opened his eyes and smirked at Dennis, the lone audience member for this strange performance.

“You didn’t feel that,” Dennis said, awed and horrified. He went over to the couch and sat down, head in hands. This wasn’t a lie or a joke. It was something with consequences, dangerous knowledge to have. The vampire was now sitting up and had composed himself.

“I would feel being stabbed in the chest, or if someone tried to cut my throat,” Tommy said flatly. “Not that I want to. But this, this is like my foot falling asleep. When I was younger, I used to like to do that trick at parties. Girls thought it made me look tough; they were always really impressed. Now I’m not even aware of it anymore. Pins and needles.” 

“Why tell me?” Again, Dennis had a vague idea of what was coming. Tommy went over to him with a sly look, one Dennis had never seen before. When Dennis had imagined Tommy looking at him and wanting him, his version of Tommy had been shy but affectionate. It wasn’t like this at all- as if Tommy wanted to literally devour him, with all of Dennis’s nerves tensing like he had lost control of his car. Tommy came and sat next to him, putting an arm around Dennis’s shoulders.

“Let me drink from you,” Tommy said, his voice as loving as it ever was. “Please, Dennis.”

“This whole time, you wanted to kill me?” Dennis gasped. He went to pull away, but Tommy held him in place. Now Dennis was leaning back slightly, with Tommy draped over him.

“No, to make you mine. Forever,” he whispered, his breath hot at Dennis’s ear. ‘Your lover left you, but I never will.”

“Oh, God,” Dennis cried. It was like a horrible, nightmarish version of every dream he’d had about August since his death. The ones where August would appear beside his bed and announce he’d come back for Dennis, that they’d never be apart. Tommy’s hands brushed Dennis’s neck, teasing him. How could being touched by someone he desired cause him so much pain? ‘Tommy, no!”

“You’re trembling. Let me drink from you- I’ll warm you.” He leaned against Dennis and kissed his lips, and Dennis could feel the other man’s heart beating. How could he be undead and have a beating heart, or feel warm under Dennis’s touch? He froze as Tommy smiled and began undoing the little neckerchief Dennis wore. “Did you wear this on purpose?” Tommy asked teasingly. “Playing hard to get?”

“No!” Dennis cried. He lay back on the couch, near tears and shaking. “You can’t make me into what you are. I couldn’t live off other people’s blood.” 

“How would you feel about being bonded to me?” Tommy said, regarding him curiously. He kissed Dennis’s wrist. “Your body tied to mine, forever.” Dennis’s sleeves were rolled up, so Tommy licked his arm, making his victim recoil. “To be fully turned, you’d need to drink from a human. If you only drank from me, you’d be a _naissant_.”

The last term was unfamiliar to Dennis- it sounded like it could mean ‘ghoul’, ‘servant,’ or even ‘concubine.’ “What exactly would that make me?” he asked, sitting up with a wary expression.

“Why?” Tommy asked, sounding like he was trying not to laugh. “What do you want to be?”

“I want to keep my soul!”

“Mmm…” Tommy said, thinking to himself. He paused and idly examined his fingernails. “As a naissant, maybe not. It means you’re not a full vampire and live off animal blood. You’ll still have a soul, but it’ll be bonded to my body. You’ll live as long as I do- but you’ll go where I go, you have to help me feed, and if I die, you die. Most people would consider that forfeiting.”

“I’d die if you died?” he asked warily. “And I’d have to find blood for you?”

“Unless you agree to drink human blood, and turn fully. But with the bond, I’d be all yours.” He met Dennis’s eyes again, and there was such promise in his expression. He was offering Dennis the world. 

“God help me, I wanted to make you happy. I want to be with you, but I know it’s not right-“

“If I fully turned you, those thoughts wouldn’t bother you anymore. Let me take care of you. Make you feel so good…” He went in for a kiss, but Dennis stopped him.

“You don’t think about anyone who’s died? Anyone you killed?”

Tommy smiled. It was a sweet-looking smile, because he needed to fully seduce Dennis. It was an innocent smile, because concepts like ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ had left his mind a long time ago. And it was pure- Tommy’s heart was devoted purely to himself. “Should I?”

“Just get out,” Dennis said. He didn’t want to look into Tommy’s eyes again, because he knew he would see how empty they were.

_______________________________________________________

It was not long before Dennis eventually gave in. Three days. It had been an agonizing, isolated three days to Dennis, only thinking of that dark offer and his memories of August. Of course, time was a very different matter to Tommy.

“You really mean you’ll never leave me?” Dennis whispered as Tommy sat on his lap, preparing to bite him. “I was so lonely until I met you.”

Tommy nodded reassuringly. “I promise, love,” he said. Dennis had never heard such a gentle whisper. This was all he had ever wanted, to belong with someone.

Suddenly, Tommy’s eyes shifted to an unnatural gold color. His pupils became catlike, and his bared teeth grew pointed. He was a delicate beauty, now with savagery bleeding through. Dennis hardly had time to blink as Tommy’s teeth sank into his flesh, right at the carotid artery on his neck.

“Ohhhh,” Dennis moaned, leaning back to let Tommy ravish him. There was a sharp pain as the skin broke, but soon it changed. He felt a deep pleasure come through at the base of the pain and flow between his legs, as if he were in a waking dream. “Oh, God,” he said softly, feeling his willpower ebbing away as the pleasure gained control. Tommy was licking the blood up now, and stopped to smile at his lover. Dennis’s very life was drenching his mouth, while Dennis himself barely noticed the blood pouring out of his open wound, only how good it felt. He was already coming, lost in bliss. Tommy’s fine-boned body was pushing up against his chest, and he could feel the other man’s rising sex pressed against his leg. The vampire’s head went down once more, and Dennis felt another deep draught flow from his neck, devoured by that warm mouth.

“So _sweet_ ,” Tommy moaned. “Like honey in your veins.” Dennis’s mouth opened in weariness and wonder as he watched Tommy lick the blood off his pouting lips. _His mouth is so re_ _d_ , Dennis thought, his mind dead to the world.

“Now I have to bind you,” Tommy said. He held out his wrist and bit it a little to open a wound, then offered it to Dennis. Here too, dark blood was already welling up. “Drink,” Tommy whispered, tenderly as a lover offering a ring. Head bowed, Dennis lapped up Tommy’s blood. From the moment he swallowed the first drop, he felt warmer and steadier. The taste was not metallic, like he expected, but more like strong, slightly bitter tea. _Does it taste good because I’m almost a vampire?_ he wondered. He continued lapping, feeling stronger with each swallow, until Tommy took his wrist away. He got off of Dennis and slumped beside him on the couch. Dennis didn’t notice it as he leaned back to catch his breath, but the bleeding on his neck had stopped. Soon the blood from Tommy’s wrist would stop too. There were only a few red drops on Dennis’s white shirt, and on the two puncture wounds Tommy had given him. The vampire stroked Dennis’s face and laughed softly: “Sweet inside and out. How do you feel?”

Dennis threw his arms around Tommy and nestled his head against the man’s chest. “I love you. Hold me?”

“And so innocent,” Tommy said. He did as Dennis had asked, smiling indulgently at him as he embraced him. “I love you; so will James.”

Dennis realized with slow horror that he himself had thought the same thing about Tommy, this innocence. And there was another matter: “Who?”

“My Sire- the one who turned me. I would have been his naissant, but we both wanted me to be fully turned, so I’m his _eleve,_ or student. And your Sire.” He had laid back on the couch and positioned Dennis to be spooning in front. Now he was threading his fingers through Dennis’s dark, curling hair and it was deliciously soothing for them both. Tommy combed through the hair, stroking it and pausing occasionally to scratch the other man’s head. Dennis was so satisfied he felt his cock twitch between his legs- and he felt Tommy’s cock stirring too. He didn’t just feel it move and rise- he felt like he could come again, right now…

“Tommy!” Dennis whispered. “I can-“

“Mmm, that’s right. As long as we’re together, you feel what I feel,” Tommy breathed.

Dennis was a little frightened at what this all meant, but still coming down off the hit of Tommy’s blood and the touch of his mouth and hands. “How…how did you get turned?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Tommy said. “Sleep. You must be tired.”

His body was weary, Dennis thought. It would be so right, so easy, to just give his body up to sleep and not have to think or feel. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the solid warmth of his lover’s form against his back, taking shelter in him. He fell into a deep sleep, but when his senses fully returned, he was ashamed to admit that he had loved every single fucking second of that night. In his heart, he knew he would do it all over again. 


	2. Just Get Through This Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dennis whines some more and learns the ropes.

Chapter 2: _Just Get Through This Night_

They woke in the late afternoon, and the reality of what the blood meant finally sunk in. Dennis had slept all day, but been plagued by horrible nightmares throughout. He could see the horrified looks on people’s faces when he came to kill them- men with families, women with their whole lives ahead of them. Where would it stop? Would he have to go to elderly people, or even children, to keep Tommy alive?

Tommy saw him curled up, weeping. All he could say, in a low bedroom voice, was: “Having second thoughts?”

Dennis raised his head. “Please, can’t you just drink my blood? Just enough so you don’t need to kill anyone?” 

“It doesn’t work that way,” he said darkly. “You’re part of me now. Your blood or any vampire’s won’t nourish me; I’d go feral if I drank from my sire or someone else's naissant... ”

“Feral? Like an animal?” They had acted like animals last night, Dennis knew. Even he himself had become less human in this surrender.

Tommy nodded. “If that happened I’d kill you and anyone else I came across. It’s a way to stop us from violating the bond. Even your features change…and the longer you stay feral, the more you lose your higher functions. Two days after I drank your blood, I’d lose my speech and memory, and rack up a high body count.”

“There’s no cure?” Tommy shook his head.

“For a full vampire, no. A naissant can go feral too, if they drink human blood without their sire’s consent to be turned. But they can be cured: if you got a small amount of blood and it wasn’t directly taken from someone’s body – say if a naissant drank human blood from a crime scene or blood bank. You’d go feral, but if you got a clean dose of animal blood and didn’t get any more human blood in your system, it would pass.”

“You should have told me this before!” Dennis cried, rising from the bed. “Tell me right now why you turned me. You wanted me to be your servant?” 

“I told you exactly what you needed to know,” Tommy snapped. He went to open the window- and was shocked when Dennis cried out, and ran over to stay his hand.

“Don’t!” Dennis said, his eyes wild with fear. “What are you doing? The sun…”

Tommy broke out in laughter. “You thought I’d die? If I go out, all I’ll get is a headache!” Dennis dropped his hand and looked rather ashamed, but was still trembling. “Honey, did I scare you? I’m so sorry,” he soothed. He opened the blinds- it was partly cloudy- and put his arms around his lover, gingerly leading him back to the bed. “The sun just weakens us a little. Let me explain a few other things to you-“

“You’re sure you’re all right?” Dennis said. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t want...”

“Shhh, I’m fine. Now listen: I tried to tell you this last night, but you passed out. Naissants are bound to help their Sires hunt. But the bond isn’t actually about feeding- we can share emotions when we have sex. There’s nothing like it in the world, and that’s what I wanted to share with you.” The way he was looking at him, Dennis could almost believe that August had come back. “Don’t you remember last night? Was it like that?”

“Yes,” Dennis whispered helplessly. “And we didn’t even make love…”

“When we do, it’ll be even better than that,” Tommy said softly. “I knew I could love you the way you wanted me to, the way you deserved. And the bond is already part of you. It’s not something you can just run from.”

“I think I understand….I can’t stop thinking about how I want you,” Dennis said, taking a shallow breath. “I feel terrible.”

“I know,” Tommy said, laying a hand against Dennis’s cheek. “Let me make it better.”

Soon, Tommy had given Dennis a vial of blood to drink- pig’s blood, he explained. Naissants subsisted on animal blood, while vampires could not. Dennis immediately felt better, again finding that the blood tasted like herbal tea. Tommy had several separate bags of blood with him, for his own use. When Dennis asked where it came from, he only responded: “I got it before the sun came up. It’s no one you know. Did you feel like you had a migraine, before? That’s how a real sunny day feels to me, so I tend to sleep through them.”

“I did feel hung over,” Dennis said.

“Do you feel a little stronger now?” Tommy went up to him and laid a soft kiss on the side of his neck. “I can show you just how close we are, hon.”

“Yes,” Dennis said hungrily.

Tommy pointed to his inner arm and whispered- “Put your mouth there. Don’t bite, just kiss.” Dennis did- and instantly, he was shuddering in pleasure, while Tommy moaned out loud. It was like someone had sent a current through Dennis’s body, and yet no one had laid a hand on him. “I’m sensitive there,” Tommy said mischievously. “Now you are, too. You won’t be able to tell where your feelings end and mine start.” And with that, he allowed Tommy to lead him to the bed and lay him down. With their energies combined, Dennis had never finished so quickly- although this was far from a disappointment. His climax hadn’t fully died out when Tommy’s began, and both were doubled in length and intensity. He could have sworn that he was seeing through Tommy’s eyes as he came- he could see himself, open-mouthed in wonder as the world fell away and nothing existed but their touch, this need they shared.

Even when August was alive, he hadn’t known this kind of closeness.

Dennis was convinced that whatever he was now, he could never become human again. And he felt there wasn’t much of his humanity that he would miss, not without August. So he did his best to please Tommy- bringing him blood whenever he grew hungry, making sure the house was neat, asking if the light was too bright for his eyes. After a few days of their intense closeness, Tommy had even encouraged him to leave his life behind and head to California with him. The vampire explained the trip would take a few days, then Dennis would meet James and the other naissants. Dennis hadn’t known there were others like him.

“Are they your lovers?”

“More like friends,” Tommy assured him. “And they never looked after me the way you do.” Dennis flushed with pride, thinking Tommy really did need and want him.

Tommy took Dennis away as he promised, and they stopped at his beach house in Gulf Shores, en route to California. Those days were so peaceful, and they spent every moment together- playing music, making love. If it was overcast, they could even go outside, providing Tommy kept his sunglasses on and didn’t overexert himself. One night, it was pouring out and the air was still humid. It was as if the ground was steaming. Dennis was sitting and reading, while Tommy was looking out the window, watching the rain whip down harder and harder.

“Dennis,” he said softly. “I’m out of blood. You’ll have to help me find someone tomorrow night. You know that.”

Dennis looked up from _Steppenwolf_ and replied: “I’m still afraid.” Tommy remained very quiet and Dennis tried again: “Tell me more about it… how you would normally do it.”

“What if you watched me once, and then helped me with the next one?”

Dennis gulped, and flinched a little as the road outside was briefly illuminated by lightning. “All right.”

Tommy’s back was still to his lover. He nodded. “Tomorrow, then.” The blond man held his fingers up to the glass and let them gently trail down to follow the rain. “I said I would tell you about my turning. Now seems like the right time.”

“Yes,” Dennis said, putting his book on the table. He sat up and when Tommy turned around, he patted the seat next to him on the couch. “I want to know all about you. Please.”

“He met me when I was right out of the navy…”

James had a slightly different perception of the events, however. He had always been a better storyteller than Tommy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tommy's backstory is coming.  
> The vampire terms are derived from French, "naissant" is like nascent so it's kind of like the term "fledgling" vampire (as seen on My Babysitter's A Vampire). Eleve means student. "Sire" is a common vampire term but the etymology is also French. I am not a Native speaker so if I am using any terms incorrectly feel free to let me know.
> 
> Credit to my friend "Bill" for coming up with the title of this chapter based on the song from Kilroy was here. He also came up with Todd's nickname, which you will see later.


	3. Spies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whoa, here comes some plot. Don't mess with Chuck.

“There’s more of them than we thought,” the man with the binoculars said. “That guy, he's not fully turned, no way. He’s not even wearing sunglasses.”

“He doesn’t look so tough,” his partner commented. He himself was wearing dark glasses, and a wide-brimmed hat. Combined with his dark beard, it seemed to be a disguise, although he knew it would have no effect on the people he and his brother were following.

“We should have taken care of him a long time ago. It’s my fault, Chuck, I should have believed you.” He put the binoculars down and sighed. They were not identical, but they were obviously twins. The man in the passenger seat looked a little older and stockier, a little more average except for his wild, fleecy hair.

“We’ll get him. All we have to do is sneak up when his groupies aren’t looking,” Chuck said. He remembered when he had first got into this mess a few months ago, walking the streets in a bad part of town. He was working late and then his bus home had broken down. It was up to him to walk the last ten blocks home and the park was just on the way to his apartment. He couldn't help being near it after dark. Friends had told him that although the surrounding streets were dangerous, the park was a popular spot for cruising. He’d never attempted such a thing there- people got jumped all the time, robbed and worse.

Chuck heard a strangled cry and looked through the trees. That didn’t sound like sex, more like someone was being attacked. It easily could’ve been himself as a younger man, not sure where to go or how to meet others like him. He walked through the gate and peeked through the trees. No, this wasn't rough sex. Those men were drenched in blood. A man of smaller stature, with long gold hair, was ripping into the other man’s neck.

"What the fuck?" he cried. The blonde man looked up and hissed at him, just like an animal. His teeth were pointed, and there was gore dripping from this mouth. _Can't be,_ thought Chuck. The creature stared at him but kept slurping at the dying man's neck, as if he were giving Chuck a chance to run away. 

"Get away from him," Chuck hissed. 

The blonde man dropped the body he was drinking from and leapt onto Chuck, who was blocking his throat by holding up his right arm. Even as Chuck tried to kick and elbow him away, the fangs sank into his forearm. Wrenching his arm back, he tried for a shove, and the vampire, if that's what he was, bit down on Chuck's hand. 

'Fuck!" he screamed. Something in his mind tried to save him from the pain, forcing his body to push forward even as his bones snapped. The vampire's quick reflexes allowed him to dodge Chuck, but he was forced to flee as he saw a flashlight being shined in his direction and heard a voice say: "Police, hands up!" 

"Oh my god, sir, what happened to you?" the Officer asked. 

"A...animal," Chuck gasped. Only his will to live was keeping him from passing out. "Hurts." 

"Stay with me," she said, getting out her radio. "We'll have an ambulance here right away, but you gotta stay with me." 

"Uh-huh," he said, swallowing hard and trying to steady himself. 

Chuck's next of kin, his twin brother John, was immediately notified about the attack. He came to the hospital as quickly as he could and found that Chuck was unconcious, sleeping off the surgery that had saved his arm. John heard from the doctor that a dog had attacked Chuck, and he was horrified by the images of Chuck's hand from before the operation. What would his brother's life be like now that his right hand was useless? Chuck's favorite things were painting and playing bass guitar, and now it looked like he wouldn't be able to do either one. He had a job as an office manager- would he still be able to do that job? More to the point, what could John do to help his twin after this type of loss? He stayed by his brother's side, and when Chuck woke up, he saw John asleep on the chair next to his bed, clutching his medical file. 

"Bro, wake up," Chuck said softly. John stirred; he'd always been a light sleeper. 

"Jesus, I thought we'd lost you," John said. Chuck shook his head. 

"I'm here. " 

"I saw these pictures," said John. "You had three fingers bitten off, ripped off- This was not from a dog," John said, his eyes haunted. 

"No shit," his brother replied. "A person did this to me. Or at least something that looked human." 

"Like what? What are you saying?" 

"I think it was a vampire," Chuck whispered. 

"No," his brother said, so unbelieving he sounded disgusted. "How can you say that?”

"You talked to the doctor. She told me she'd never seen bite marks like these before. I saw it kill someone else. It's probably killing right now. If you were me, wouldn't you want an explanation for this, even if it sounded ridiculous?" 

"You're doped up!" John cried. "You're doped up on painkillers and stuff, and this'll wear off-"

"I might be," Chuck groaned. 

The nurse entered, a man slightly younger than the two brothers. "You're finally awake! Doctor Lee says you were bit by a dog?" he asked. "How are you feeling, Mr. Panozzo?"

“One of those little blonde yappy dogs,” Chuck said. “You wouldn’t think it to look at him, but he was madder than hell.”

“No one’s safe from a dog that can do this kind of damage,” the nurse said, checking the wound. “You’re lucky you don’t have rabies.”

“Well, I’m willing to help out with that,” Chuck said. “The bitch should be put down.”

“You’d get a shotgun and finish the job yourself, huh?” the nurse said.

“Can you really blame me?” Chuck asked bitterly. 


	4. Young Lust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy's no angel. Takes place right after Chapter 2.

The next night, Dennis followed Tommy to watch him hunt. There was a County Fair in the next town, and that night was the very last night of the fair. Tommy explained that it would be easy to find someone in the crowd, someone who had come to the event alone and wouldn’t be missed right away. Dennis was to track them from a safe distance behind, and observe how to lure someone away.

Dennis tried confessing his doubts that afternoon, as they planned the abduction. “You…” _You lured me away,_ Dennis almost said. “Why do you need me to help you with this, with finding people? The bond doesn’t force me to do it, right?”

“What if something happens to me- I could be near death if you don’t get me anyone!”

Whatever patience he had was frayed- Dennis smacked the table and stood up. “I’m not killing for you. It goes against everything I believe in.”

Tommy’s knuckles were white as he gripped the back of the chair he’d just risen from. He did not move closer, but seemed to scream in Dennis’s face: “How selfish are you? If I get desperate enough to bite you and go feral, it’ll be your fault! You don’t care about me at all. I trusted you not to turn on me, not to go feral. Look at what I gave you when we made love- and you’re not even grateful for that.”

“I’m- I’m sorry,” Dennis said, gasping for air as he fought back tears. “You know how much I care. I’m just not used to the idea yet...”

“Maybe bonding you was a mistake. I can’t take it back, but I can leave you where I found you.”

“No!” To him, this sounded he was being sentenced to being alone for the rest of his life. How could he experience this bond with someone and them go back to nothing but his memories of August? What if there were more things about this change he’d undergone that he didn’t have a chance to learn? Maybe he could even find a way to keep Tommy alive without killing for him, to keep the bond alive without any blood on their hands.

“Please, I’m sorry. I’ll try to find a way to help you.”

“Then stop your excuses,” Tommy said, now eerily cool. “You can’t wash your hands and forget this, so you have to learn.”

The sun was almost completely gone as they arrived at the fairgrounds. There was a large crowd, restless with the fair ending and soon, the summer. The vampire and his naissant made a quick survey of the parking lot before splitting up. Here, some people were selling goods without a permit- often in their cars, so they could drive away if a cop came after them. On a blanket at the edge of the lot sat a young girl with a big duffel bag by her side, selling necklaces and other beaded jewelry. Her crafts were very simple, and even though she was sitting still, she looked like she wanted to wander away. A brown ponytail hung down her back, and her button nose was topped with little granny glasses. “Hi,” she said trying to meet Tommy’s eyes. “All the necklaces are a dollar.”

“Very pretty,” he said. He was looking directly at her, not the string of bright pink beads he was holding. The pleasure on her face was embarrassed, but palpable. _This works every time, every century_ , he thought with wicked satisfaction.

“Ummm, thank you,” she whispered. “Bracelets are two for a dollar.”

“Why aren’t you selling inside?”

“I don’t have money for a permit.” She fidgeted a little and tucked her legs underneath her.

“Did you drive here?” She shook her head. “It’s not safe for you to be out here all by yourself at night,” he said in measured tones as he placed the beads back where he’d found them. “How old are you? Oh my gosh, I’m sorry,” he said, affecting an awkward laugh. “I must sound so rude. But I have a sister about your age...?”

“18,” the girl said, giggling. Tommy could not take his eyes off her light brown neck. It was adorned with a cowrie shell necklace, as if she had wrapped a gift for him. He smiled, thinking of her making the necklace and putting it on to get his gift ready.

“Oh she’s only 16,” he said. “Still, it’s dangerous out here in the dark. Do you live nearby?”

“I do, yeah. I was gonna go soon anyway,” she said. “Did you want that necklace?”

He handed her a five, and as she counted out the change, he said: “My friend had to borrow my car, but maybe I could I walk you home.”

She looked at him and nearly dropped the four dollars. “Yeah? Okay….thank you,” she said. “Um, what’s your name? I’m Samantha.” She held out the money to him and he clasped her hands to take it from her.

“I’m Jonathan.” _Her heart must be thumping so hard_ , he thought. “Thank you. You’re a very talented artist, my sister’s gonna love that necklace.”

“Thank- I mean, you’re welcome,” she said. And for a moment, she looked in his eyes. It looked like she might realize this was all a little too good to be true, that all the beads he’d strung for her were going to come undone. But when she blinked, the moment of clarity passed. She reached down and gave him the beads, then began to pack up the rest of the jewelry with trembling hands. Dennis watched as Tommy played the perfect gentleman, walking the girl home and carrying her things. “No, let me,” he said, taking the duffel bag with the blanket and the bundled jewelry. “It’s heavy. Tell me, what’s your address?”

“I live with my mom and dad over on Faver; number 22,” she said, pointing. “It’ll take us about ten minutes.”

“Do you want to cut through that park over there?” he asked. Dennis could swear Tommy was raising his voice so he could hear. Samantha nodded and they set off. As they entered the park, Tommy used his free hand to grasp one of Samantha’s- she clutched the young man’s hand as if it were something precious.

‘I should call my mom and dad to say I’m on my way,” she said suddenly. “They worry if I don’t. There’s a pay phone up ahead somewhere.” Most people would have said it was only ten minutes, and not to bother. Tommy was well aware of this, and not ‘most people.’

“You’re right,” Tommy said, ever the sweet young lover. “I think I have a dime; I just gotta put this bag down and get my wallet. Let’s sit under that tree.” She nodded and they went to sit down. The park was quiet, with a little gazebo and some carefully pruned trees, just far enough from the beachy soil of Tommy’s house to take root. At any other time, it might have been a very pleasant place. The couple had passed a bus shelter before arriving in the park, and Dennis went there to sit and watch. He could just make their forms out across the road, if he strained his eyes. During the walk, Tommy had been careful not to let Samantha turn around and see Dennis, but the park was small and it would be more difficult for his naissant to hide there.

Tommy leaned back against the tree as they sat on the ground. He took the dime out of his wallet, and his lighter, along with a cigarette, out of his other pocket. He tossed her the dime, then held out the unlit cigarette. “You want one?” he asked, and Dennis knew he was not just offering the girl a smoke, but himself; this immaculately arranged lie he’d presented to her.

Eyes wide, she shook her head. “Oh, no. I couldn’t.”

“No problem,” he said, putting it back in his pocket with the lighter. He looked at her. His eyes were temptingly narrowed and there was a smile on his lips. “A kiss?” he asked. “Would that be okay?”

“Y-yeah,” she said eagerly. Her narrow frame, barely a woman’s, leaned towards him.

“Samantha,” he said. There was such longing in his voice. If Dennis had heard, he would have been jealous. Their lips met and it was a perfect moment, just as Tommy had planned. It was the kind of kiss every young girl dreams of- confident, but not threatening. Placing his arms around her, he moved his kisses down to her neck, kissing more and more as she whimpered in confused pleasure.

“Oh,” she said, smiling blankly, her eyes clamped shut.

Dennis shut his own eyes, and felt his whole body tense up. _What a coward I am,_ he thought. _If I throw my life away on something like this, I should at least have the stomach for it. But I can’t watch. Not yet. Will I ever be ready?_

Then, Tommy bit down- Samantha’s smile stayed in place as he tore into her throat. She didn’t even scream. The kill had come too quickly for her to realize what was happening. Tommy’s arrival at his lover’s side was just as swift. Dennis’s eyes flicked open as he heard footsteps; he hoped that the vampire hadn’t seen him shrinking away from the murder, the sounds of ripping. Tommy patted him on the shoulder, then took a handkerchief out of his pocket and scrupulously wiped his bloodied mouth. “It’s not always that easy,” he told his naissant. “But you get the idea.”

 _She died happy_ , Dennis thought. _He must have tasted it on her._

“Tired?” Tommy asked as they walked back to the house.

“I’m not going to sleep,” Dennis said in a hollow voice.

“That’s fine,” Tommy said. “You can stay up with me.”


	5. Temporarily Closed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dennis meets Larry, Todd, and James (JY). Todd...is easily the least peculiar.

It was finally time for Tommy and Dennis to go meet James and the other naissants. Their hideout, or what passed for a place of residence, was in a little coastal town, a popular seaside resort....in the 1920s. Now the place was forgotten by time: the carnival facades on the boardwalk and the once-opulent buildings were faded, looking like a child’s waking nightmare as they rotted away on the shore. They walked up what was left of the boardwalk. Dennis could swear he was getting splinters from just looking at the wood. He’d been here once at a very young age, but it was hard to imagine the place without the gray sky over them. In his memory it had also been gray. How was that possible, for a beach? 

"The place does get some sun, but there's only a couple windows and people leave us alone, so we do okay." Tommy said, adjusting his dark glasses. "We're squatting, so we bribe the cops to keep them off our back and try not to attract too much attention. They think we’re running a cathouse; meanwhile, they’re barely qualified to guard a pancake house.”

"You don't live in the carnival buildings, do you?" Dennis asked. He noticed there were grinning clown faces plastered on what was left of the carnival, and clowns had always made him slightly uneasy. 

Tommy gave him a withering look. "No. What did I tell you about all that crap from movies? It is abandoned, but we live in the old theater up the road here." 

It was a dark brick building, with a few black clattering plastic letters on the front marquee that said CLOSED. There were grimacing faces in bas-relief above the door and scattered like gargoyles throughout the building: the masks of comedy and tragedy. Tommy got out a thin metal key and unlocked the door. As he stepped inside, it was like dumping water on a flower- although it was overcast outside, he instantly seemed healthier and more alert. He pushed his glasses up onto his head and motioned for Dennis to follow him.

Most of the theater's set pieces had been taken by looters, but there were some things too heavy to carry away- including a broken chandelier, resting on the floor of the front lobby and dominating the room. "Watch your step," Tommy said. "You could still fall and break your neck, and we can't have that." Dennis did his best to avoid anything sticking up from the thin carpet, which that had faded from blue to gray. There were rows of reddish seats in the orchestra section and the balcony. Their upholstery was threadbare, covered in dust. No one had performed here, or sat in most of the seats, in years. There was even an old Cracker Jack box on the floor. Tommy held the red stage curtain aside and gestured for Dennis to follow him. 

'We don't spend much time in the main seating area, of course, or on the stage. But there's a lot of rooms in the back, like...what do you call those, rabbit tunnels?"

'A warren," Dennis said.

Tommy nodded. "That's it. Our rooms are back there.” They were on the stage now, and the ghost light was turned on. Old lights and posters were lurking in the periphery, away from the eerie glow of that single bulb. “Todd found a way to get the lights rigged up, so that’s nice. We just can’t put any on that can be seen from the street.”

"Wow, this place is amazing," Dennis whispered as they pushed past a piano with missing keys, some decaying velvet ropes and stanchions, and even an old xylophone. "It really must have been impressive back in the day." 

"Probably the nicest place I've squatted," Tommy said. "I kind of wish we could go back to renting. I'll show you your room. " 

"Boo," a voice said, and Dennis jumped almost ten feet. Someone had been hiding in the shadows, behind a broken popcorn machine, and jumped out to surprise them. He was a slight, white-faced man, who appeared to be about Tommy's age. "Hi, all," he said softly. "This the new guy?" His very dark hair had bangs that hung over his face like he had ironed them down, and he wore an earring in one ear. Dennis assumed he had to be a vampire, but Tommy introduced the man as Larry, James's naissant. 

"Welcome to the family," Larry said, tenting his fingers and looking at Dennis with curiosity. "So what's in it for you? You want to live forever? Chase skirts forever? Or are you a serial killer?" 

Tommy just laughed, but Dennis really didn't know what to make of Larry. If this was James’s naissant, what was James like? He noticed Larry had on a long scarlet coat over his otherwise black clothing. It really did look like something a stereotypical 1700s vampire would wear, or possibly a very flamboyant pirate. Also, his name _really_ didn’t match the rest of him. "I....I'm sort of starting over in general," Dennis faltered. "How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?" 

"Oh, you’re staring at this," Larry said, indicating his coat. "It's an old costume I found in the back. James only turned me five years ago." 

“Come with us, I want to show Dennis his room before James is up,” Tommy said, as if they were any ordinary pair of roommates. "How’s work, Larry?”

"Tedious as always," Larry said airily. 

"What do you do?" Dennis asked. He wondered if Larry was a mortician. That would make a twisted kind of sense.

“I’m a gynecologist,” Larry said. “People always said I was good with my hands.”

Dennis just stared in response, but Tommy looked a little annoyed. "You'll get used to his weird sense of humor. Larry works at the hospital records office." He opened the back door and they zipped through a dim anteroom and into a harshly lit white corridor where all the doors, frames and baseboards were painted black, not unlike the community college Dennis had attended. 

"I went to the post office to get my check, and was able to take some more blood. It’s in the fridge," Larry said, and Dennis nodded to himself. So, he had been close- things did fit together a little like they did in vampire movies. _Maybe I could do that,_ Dennis thought. _I wouldn’t even have to touch anyone._

"I think I took all I can for the next coming week, so you'll have to stretch it out,” Larry continued. He put his hand on Tommy’s shoulder, but the vampire brushed it off.

“We’ll manage,” Tommy said. They came to a door on the left- there was a name plate on the door, reading Dressing Room A. Tommy turned to Dennis. "This is yours. Larry is in B, the room right across the way. And James and I are down the hall.”

“Todd’s room is in the scenic shop,” Larry told Dennis. “He won’t be home for a while.”

“Oh that’s right,” Dennis said quietly. “So…you and Todd are James’s naissants. Where is he?”

"Wait, you didn’t tell him Todd is yours?" Larry said, turning to Tommy in mock outrage. Larry then saw the look of embarrassment and jealousy on Dennis’s face- and burst out laughing. “You really don’t know what you signed up for, do you?”

“Larry,” Tommy said sweetly, “go find a nice crossbeam and hang yourself from it.”

“I just met him, and you want him to know my full sexual history?” Larry said, still laughing.

“Leave,” Tommy said, darkness creeping into his voice. “Dennis and I need to talk.” Larry exited, barely hiding a look of guilty glee.

“I thought I was your only one,” Dennis said quietly.

“I want to show you your room,” Tommy said. “Let’s sit and talk in there.”

Tommy took his naissant into the earth-toned room that would be his, and tried to soothe him. It was very comfortable, with a full-sized bed and a thick, clean carpet on the floor. There was even a chest of drawers, and some shelves for books and other personal items. Tommy sat on the bed and had Dennis sit beside him. “Dennis, when you’ve lived as long as I have, there’s bound to be more than one person you feel a connection to. My former naissant- someone thought he was me, and killed him.”

“Do you miss him, and not the people you killed? Why is that?” Dennis asked in outrage.

“I chose to care about him,” Tommy said slowly. It sounded as if he were answering the question for the first time, thought Dennis. “I took care of him, I was responsible for him. Other people…I have nothing tying me to who they are, I just drank their blood.”

“I don’t understand,” Dennis said fearfully. “I don’t think I ever will.”

“You wouldn’t unless you were turned. But I like that you don’t want to be a killer. You’re different than Todd, or Larry.”

“What exactly are they to you?” he demanded.

“Todd is strong, and he’s very capable. He never backs away from what has to be done, and he saved our lives more than once. I guess you could say he’s a partner, a co-worker. Larry…” Tommy shook his head and chuckled. “He’s like our court jester, life would be less interesting without him. And he can improvise, which does come in handy.”

“Do you sleep with them?”

“Todd, not so much. Larry and he are very close- when James isn’t keeping Larry busy.”

“What about James?” Dennis asked. He hadn’t even met the man yet, but he was already dreading the answer to the question.

“It’s like I just told you,” Tommy said, matter-of-factly. “He sired me. It’s…it sounds so bizarre when I try to explain it to someone who’s never done it. It’s like he adopted me and married me all at once. You and I could have that, but you-“

“I know,” Dennis said. He’d heard it all before and had no interest in hearing it again. “I just don’t understand why you want me if you have someone like him. You’ve tried to explain it, but…”

“Because I knew you were devoted, but had no one to devote yourself to. And you were very genuine, never faking who you were. That’s something I could never be.”

“You mean, not anymore?” Dennis asked. “Because of what you are?”

“I think I’ve always hid parts of myself, for one reason or another,” Tommy said. He placed a hand on Dennis’s shoulder, drawing the other man towards him. “But now I need to rest, and I really want to be with you- I need to be with you. Will you sleep next to me?”

Dennis looked around the room, wondering if it would ever feel like home. “Your other naissant, this was his room?”

“We got new things in it, after he passed,” Tommy said. “You can change whatever you want about it, though. It’s yours.”

“Will you hold me?” Dennis whispered. Tommy nodded, and they drifted onto their sides. Soon they collapsed, from stress as well as fatigue. Dennis slept several long hours in Tommy’s arms, and as before, it felt like perfect bliss. He felt more safe and contented than he had since August was killed- almost like he was finally home.

He had not yet stopped to fully consider the people who had been strangled in Tommy’s embrace, or whose blood was under his lover’s fingernails.

They were awakened by Todd. He had pushed his motorcycle inside the theatre and chained it up, in what used to be the coat-check room. He doffed his beat-up helmet and left it by his bike, then came into the lobby to greet the other three men. Larry practically pounced on Todd, kissing his cheeks and almost ripping off his brown bomber jacket. However, Todd noticed Dennis and told Larry they’d catch up later. “So this is the guy you mentioned on the phone,” Todd said to Tommy. Dennis realized that in their living situation, they probably couldn’t use the phone lines in the building- even if the cops were looking the other way and letting them stay there. However, there was a pay phone at the end of the block, so perhaps that was the phone he meant. “Dennis, right? I’m Todd.” Dennis had expected Todd to be tall and buff, or perhaps more like Tommy. He was surprised to see Todd was rather average-looking: white and perhaps on the short side, prominent eyes, dark hair and goatee a little scruffy. Then again, Dennis thought, Larry was the only one who came close to looking like a stereotypical vampire, and he was unsure if Larry was mentally all there. Todd held out his hand and Dennis shook it, then he embraced his Sire, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

“I want you to walk him through it,” Tommy said to Todd, indicating the newest member of the group. “Collecting, staying sated, all of it.”

“Sure, sure. He looks like he could blend into a crowd,” Todd said. “I mean that in a good way, Dennis.”

“He’s stronger than he looks,” Tommy said suggestively. Larry snickered, and Todd just shook his head, but Dennis did feel a little pride even as he blushed. Then he realized just what he was responding to, and caught his breath. _So,_ he thought, _is this how women feel when guys talk about them? Not that I haven’t heard guys in bars talking about other guys that way…_

“James will be here soon,” Tommy said. “I’ll see you three in a bit. I need to rest a while longer.” Dennis wanted to join him, but Todd and Larry urged him to stay behind. They sat down on one of the old lobby benches. It was right in front of a cracked window, and they started to talk as they watched the sun set. 

“How’re you holding up?” Todd asked. “I know this is a lot to take in.”

“My throat’s so dry,” Dennis whispered. He even sounded a bit hoarse, he realized. Dennis looked briefly over his shoulder and out the window. The sun was brighter than it had been all day…then he recoiled a little. There was a large spider in the window, building its web. “Oh, I thought that was a black widow,” he said. Spiders normally didn’t bother him, but thinking there was a black widow a few inches from his head was unnerving.

“Even if it was, you’d probably be ok,” Todd said. Dennis pressed him to explain further, so he did: “Yes, you could live as long as Tommy does. I mean, we can still die from major things- being set on fire, stabbed in the heart, a bullet to the brain, losing your head- but so would he. But you’ll heal pretty quickly from most injuries, illnesses or poison, as long as Tommy’s ok. He’s really careful.”

“One of the many side benefits of this gig,” Larry said. He rose and reached over Dennis’s head. Dennis watched in horror as Larry plucked the spider off its strings of webbing and ate it. “Cheers,” Larry said, as if he had thrown back a shot. 

Todd sighed. “Quit scaring the new kid, Larry. I think living with you is gonna get him, not a stake through the heart.”

Dennis, thinking of how thirsty he was, tried to steer the conversation back on track. “So like I said, I haven’t felt too great. I’m getting used to the pig blood….”

“Yeah, blood thirst is a bitch, but we keep a steady supply. It’s gonna be on you to help contribute from now on, y’know. Like when you’re at work, and if you finish the pot of coffee, you have to make a fresh one. Man, my old man used to gripe about that all the time." 

"Does your family know you're here?" 

Todd stared at him, as if suddenly remembering he had a family. "No, I walked out on them way before I got here. But like I was saying about the blood supply, here’s a tip I learned from a group we met in New Mexico- pig blood works best, because the composition of a pig’s flesh is similar to a human’s. Also, you can get it pretty easily from a butcher or a slaughterhouse. Me, I drink a shot before bed and one right when I wake up, and I’m good for the day. You might as well start with that. Sometimes, I do end up having a snack or something in between.”

“You mean…?” Dennis asked.

“I mean like a peanut butter sandwich around 3, if I’m hungry,” Todd said, to Dennis’s immense relief. “But if you get really desperate, and don’t have any pig’s blood at all…well, you can guess.”

“Um, no.” Dennis asked warily.

“What? That’s one of the only things movies get right. You find rats,” Todd said with a mischievous smile. “But their body isn’t that close to a human’s, so they have to be alive.”

He knew Todd would laugh at him, but Dennis still winced. “You’re joking again, right?”

“It’s an acquired taste,” Larry said with a shrug. “One whole rat has enough blood to get you through the day. Easy way to measure, and they’re easy to find.”

“So…wait a minute,” Dennis said, turning to Larry. “You don’t _have_ to eat spiders?”

“You don’t do anything for the sheer enjoyment of it?” Larry asked, as if they’d been talking about playing tennis. “Well, either way, you’ll have to lie back and think of England, as they say.”

Dennis knew he had to get a better handle on this stuff, and decided to begin at the beginning. First, he talked about they days he and Tommy had spent together, living off the stash of blood bags. Then, he confessed: “Here’s my problem. You get them blood from the hospital, right? So why do they have to kill people?”

Todd sighed. “Larry said the same thing five years ago, when they coached him into getting that job. The blood bags are there to keep them going. But they still need living blood every few days, blood that’s not bonded to them. You know about going feral, right?” Dennis nodded so Todd continued: “Killing is something a vampire _has_ to do. It’s like if you were a vegetarian and you tried to force your dog to be one too. That’s not good for the dog, and it’ll make him real sick,” Todd explained. “I dated this hippie chick once, and she tried to do that.”

“That’s awful,” Dennis whispered.

“Don’t worry, the dog was ok. She went back to giving him meat,” Todd said.

‘No, I mean murder!” Dennis said. The thirst was gnawing at the back of this throat. “Could…could I have a drink?” he asked.

“Oh, of course. You must think we’re terrible hosts,” Larry said. “Allow me.” They followed Larry to the old Green Room in the theater, which had become a makeshift kitchen. There were cupboards, a table and chairs, a little hot plate set up on one of the counters, and a fridge- everything you’d need in a kitchen, plus the addition of a moth-eaten sofa. Todd and Dennis sat down, while Larry went into one of the cupboards and got out an antique brandy snifter- it must have been a prop from some play, years ago. He set it down and went to the fridge. Out came a white plastic bucket, with telltale red streaks down the side. Larry took the bucket out and poured the blood into the brandy snifter, then set it down in front of Dennis as if he were waiting on him at a fancy restaurant. “ _Slàinte!”*_ he said, gesturing proudly. (*See notes) 

“Pig blood?” Dennis asked. Larry shook his head. “Rat?”

Larry winked a yes. “Enjoy,” he said.

Dennis raised the glass…then thought, _what the hell_ , _Tommy’s was great and even the pig blood was ok,_ and swirled it around like he was about to drink a glass of wine. Larry and Todd both laughed. Okay, thought Dennis, so there _was_ a chance he might go from ‘new kid’ to one of the guys. Emboldened by the thought, Dennis took his first sip. It tasted like sucking on a rusty knife, but it _felt_ like a piping hot cup of coffee after a hangover. He felt stronger and the ache in his throat subsided. “It’s not that bad,” he admitted.

“They grow up so fast,” Larry said.

There was a loud slam from the back of the theater, and Larry glanced over at Todd. “He’s home.”

“He means James,” Todd said. “Let’s go. Don’t get cocky with him and he’ll like you just fine, okay?”

“Um, okay,” Dennis said.

James was sitting in Tommy’s room, on the bed. He was quite striking: tall and thin as a rapier, with long, leonine hair and a raffish beard. Tommy was sitting at James’s side- the way a lover would, Dennis realized as he entered the room. Larry was already commanding James’s attention, standing before him and whispering. Dennis couldn’t quite make out what was being said. He strained to hear, but the talk ended and James held out his hand- he wore no ring, but Larry kissed that hand as if James were the Pope, or at least royalty. He gave his naissant a satisfied smirk, then whispered in Lawrence’s ear. Larry grinned- based on that expression, whatever James told him had been filthy.

“He gets off on the power trip thing,” Todd whispered. They were both standing in the hall just outside the door, and had not yet entered.

Dennis looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Which one, James or Larry?”

“Well, they both do. But Tommy doesn’t go for that, and you don’t have to do it. Just act like James is your boss and you’ll be fine. That’s what I do.”

 _My boss, okay,_ Dennis thought, realizing how little sense this made. _I guess I could understand that, if I were a hit man._

“Come on in, guys,” Tommy said in a friendly voice.

James looked Dennis over, appraising him. That superior little smile was still playing on his lips, and he had arched one eyebrow. “This him?” he asked Tommy.

Tommy nodded. “Dennis, this is James. I told him all about you- about us.” He seemed to be trying to sound as sweet as possible, the way he had with Samantha.

“Hello,” Dennis said. He squared his shoulders, not about to let himself be intimidated.

James held out his hand- to shake. “Glad to have you.”

Dennis accepted and shook, making sure to look James in the eye. The vampire’s hands were smooth and manicured, but icy to the touch. “Tommy’s been very kind.”

“Yes,” James said, chuckling fondly and releasing Dennis’s hand. “He told me all about you. Like how you haven’t killed yet, you pathetic little shit.”

Dennis froze as James’s grin disappeared and the older vampire glared at him. Only his facial expression had changed; nothing else moved. “Everyone contributes here, understood? Now, given Larry’s job, we let him off the hook a lot of the time. But that does not apply to you.”

“But…” Dennis’s mouth open and shut, but he didn’t feel himself taking in any air or forming more words. He tried again: “Couldn’t I also do his job?”

James’s eyes narrowed, and Tommy looked away from Dennis. The older, taller vampire spoke very quietly: “I don’t know who the hell you think you are. So let me explain something to you. When you go to the fucking _bank,”_ he said, growing louder and harsher on the last word, “to prove you’re good to get a loan, you put down something called collateral. In this case, that would be someone’s life.” His voice returned to its quiet tone: “And in return, you get to keep enjoying this little arrangement you’re in. Because if you don’t give us what we need, I have other ways of getting it. Keep that in mind.” His eyes went dark and became those of an animal, the way Tommy’s had when he bit Dennis. But there was no lust there, just a threat… to rip into Dennis and steal his life.

 _Tommy couldn’t drink your blood, but he could,_ Dennis thought. _He’d kill you right now if Tommy weren’t sitting here. If Tommy didn’t live in this house._

“Th…thank you,” Dennis said weakly. All his attempts to remain cool and calm were forgotten. Tommy had his arms around him and was leading him away, whispering softly. Soon they were in the Green Room together.

"Did he mean what he said, back there?" Dennis asked falteringly. 

"He does that to scare people. He's gotta be the biggest guy in the room," Tommy said, taking Dennis in his arms and comforting him. "I better bunk down with him when he's ready- it'll calm him down. You understand."

But he didn't, not really. 

That night he dreamed he was in bed with August. But instead of leaning down to kiss him, Dennis saw slender white hands tightening around August's throat. The hands were his own, but the will that moved them was something alien. He saw August in pain, heard him try to cry out, and felt the life draining from him....the one person he had loved most in the world. The look in his lover's eyes screamed, _stop, I'm dying,_ but Dennis couldn't rip his hands away or even loosen his grip. 

"No, I’ll save you," he heard himself say, squeezing tighter. "No..."

"Yes," said a soft voice at his shoulder. Dennis knew who it was, but his eyes still darted from August's lifeless corpse to the figure haunting him: Tommy, who had two empty sockets where his eyes had once been. There was blood dripping from the sockets. It was running down from his forehead, drenching his hair and leaving a sheen on his skin. _He's sweating it,_ Dennis realized, fighting the urge to be sick. "Good boy, Dennis," Tommy said, baring his fangs. "Thank you for giving him to me." 

"He's not yours!" Dennis cried, but he still felt his body being moved like a puppet to present Tommy with August's corpse. 

"He is," Tommy said. He was clinging to Dennis now, and so was the blood that dripped from his pores. It was sticky and warm on Dennis's skin- he looked down and saw Tommy’s fingertips were black. They were rotting and ready to fall off at any second, and Tommy was stroking them against Dennis’s neck. Dennis had never felt anything so revolting, and his whole body tensed as Tommy continued in a seductive voice: "So are you. You’re mine..."

The last word sent him propelling out of the nightmare- he woke in that strange, windowless room, alone and covered in sweat. For a moment he was nothing and no one. The loss of memory was almost reassuring, since it was better than the nightmare. Then he recalled August was gone. That he'd thrown away whatever was left of his own life to be with Tommy, who was currently in the arms of another man. The weight of that knowledge settled on him, and he knew he was unlikely to get back to sleep until at least the next day. As Dennis struggled to fill the hours until he could see Tommy again and they could perhaps work something out, his mind wandered back to what Tommy had told him about James, and about his own turning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Larry is giving a traditional Scottish Gaelic toast here, being of Scottish descent IRL. Again, if I screwed up on the languages, feel free to correct me. 
> 
> The theater is not supposed to be the Paradise Theater (it's not Chicago) , but if you want it to be, it certainly fits.


	6. In Your Soul Like Original Sin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get backstory for James and Tommy: smut, exposition, and bad behavior this author does not endorse.

In 1750, James stowed away on a ship from the Ruhr Valley of Germany to settle in England. He was only 17 years old when he arrived in London, and was eager to leave his childhood behind- he had spent it working in a coal mine, and the mines had already killed his father. At first, James supported himself in England as a messenger boy. He quickly found that there was more profit- and power- in using the job as a means to sell his body to older men. Thanks to his tall, elegant figure, quick wit, and enticing manner, by age 20 he was able to find a place in an all-male brothel or ‘molly house’. His was not a tragic story of a fallen boy with a kind heart. James had entered that life to benefit nothing and no one but himself, and did so until he was turned at age 35. 

One would think that many of James's older male clients must have at least seemed like vampires, and that assumption would be correct. But the person who turned James was actually a woman, and a fellow prostitute. 

No one knew her real name. Everyone called her Nightingale because she only came out at night, and she had a very musical speaking voice. She and James didn’t work together, of course, but they ran in many of the same circles in the decades he’d been working. A mutual attraction had always been present.

James had been in a bar fight several nights before, and his opponent had hit him with his cane and given James a black eye. Nightingale, who’d been entertaining a client of hers at the bar, rushed over and asked if James was all right. He’d shrugged the injury off. But a few nights later, James was cutting through an alley to get back home, and he heard what could only be described as an unearthly gurgling noise- followed by a musical female laugh that he knew very well. He looked into a dark corner and saw Nightingale feeding from the same man who had beaten him- she wasn't just sucking his blood. She had slit his throat and was licking the wound.

"Oh," she panted. She let the man's body drop to the ground and pulled James over. "Jimmy, it's just you. You gave me a turn." Her dainty brown hand flicked a spot of blood away from the corner of her mouth.

"What the hell?" he said, all other words having left him.

She looked at him and patted her dark, curly hair back into place. "You understand, don't you? You've seen enough, on the streets." 

James just shook his head. "Are you going to...to kill me too?" 

"Look at you!" she said, laughing. "'A fellow like you, as scared as a little boy. No, Jimmy, I won't hurt you. You wouldn't snitch on me. Besides, I only go after the ones like him, people we'd be better off without. We can smell the blood on their hands. They call us the _Vertueux_ , or Righteous.”

“You’re a vampire…" James said. "Is that why you only come out at night?" 

She nodded. “Some people think the sun can turn us to dust. It can’t, but it does make us feel dreadful. Feverish, like." 

This was what drew people to her, James realized. She wasn’t just beautiful, she was more than human. "Can you mesmerize people? Will you show me how?" 

She laughed. "I'm no hypnotist. But I talk a big game, and toffs like that. When you have no soul, you've nothing to fear." 

Most people would have rejected the idea of 'no soul', but James loved the idea of 'nothing to fear.' “Can you make me like you?" 

"Why?" she said. "It's not an easy life. I could choose to be vertueux, but I didn’t choose the life of the blood- one of my clients turned me, then his wife took pity on me and showed me how to live without killing. Why would you want to be like me?”

"I want to live without fear," he said. "I've been pretending to be fearless for so long, but it's never been real. I don’t just want to survive anymore, competing with people. I want a life with no regrets." 

"When you say no regrets, I hope you mean it," she said. "But I’ll teach you what I know. Come here, my darling." Her needle-sharp teeth sank into his neck.

James was delighted with the change, and took to it immediately. His lover did her best to instruct him in the way of the vertueux, how to go after the most cruel and corrupt people in the city- but was devastated when he didn’t stop there. More than blood, more than sex, James was addicted to power. After his first kill, he was a full vampire and didn’t need her permission to take blood. Eagerly, he began getting rid of whoever had wronged him over the years, or currently stood in his way. He even got rid of several young men who had been his friends and worked the streets alongside him. He just didn’t want to compete with them any longer, especially if their clients could be his prey. It was these serial murders that cost him his soul, and then James’s temper grew hotter while his affections grew colder. His sire knew then that he could never be redeemed, and she left the city without a goodbye. Sometimes, James wondered if she was still out there, drawing people into dark corners with her soft voice. 

Once his own murders started piling up, James knew he had to leave London. After a decade, he'd gotten rid of too many powerful people, and he vowed to be more careful as time went on. In those days, going from England to newly-independent America and changing your name slightly was enough to cover your tracks. He still remembered the voyage and the young sailor he had met on the ship- a poor American lad named Tommy, who looked almost as young as the cabin boy. He had to take a lot of mockery and hazing from the older, rougher sailors on board.

“How old are you?” James had asked the handsome young man, gazing into his blue-green eyes.

“Twenty. But everyone says I look younger.” A lovely, hot blush spread across his face.

 _Warm blood,_ James had thought. _It looks so good on him; pity to steal it._

The older man gave him a strange smile. “Don’t be ashamed. Most people wish they looked younger. You need to see youth as an advantage.” And he knew exactly what he saw in Tommy. He wanted to turn this man and create a partner who was a younger, prettier version of himself. If someone had accused James of narcissism, he would have freely admitted it. When they were as alone as they could be on deck, James asked if the young sailor would like to serve as his ‘companion’-and not just for the night. Tommy was familiar with such arrangements, from his time in the navy. Although he was less experienced than some men, he shyly accepted, and allowed James to lead him to his private cabin. However, when they were in bed together and James revealed his fangs, he didn’t take it well: “What are you?” Tommy cried.

“Someone who’s been searching his whole life for you.” James said. His mouth descended on Tommy and he bit into that soft, willing neck. The blood dripped and James licked up most of it. He then lightly touched the wound with his finger and smeared the blood, as if it were rouge, onto Tommy’s nipples. Flicking his rough tongue, he licked it off, leaving Tommy gasping in pleasure. The vampire slowly ran his fingers down Tommy’s hard stomach and whispered: “You’re just _aching_ for it, aren’t you?”

“James,” Tommy moaned. It was the first time the young man had used his given name, and James was pleased to hear it said in such a heavenly voice.

He got atop his prey, gripped Tommy’s narrow hips and ground his pelvis against him as he continued to drink. Only when he was fully sated did James break away. Tommy lay back, delirious, and shut his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again he saw James was now bare-chested and holding a knife. The vampire made a shallow cut on his own chest and urged Tommy to drink from the wound. As Tommy drank, James held him and whispered: “So beautiful, so perfect… giving yourself to me like this.” Tommy looked up at him, eyes shining and mouth slick with blood. In that moment, they were bound to one another- soon he would kill and fully become James’s creation. “I’ll take care of you now,” James said, petting Tommy’s long, golden hair. “You’ll have everything you ever wanted, and be young and strong forever. Anyone’s life is yours.”

“They’ll fight us,” Tommy whispered.

“Then we get rid of them,” James said. “The men on this ship treat you like a child. They try to take advantage of you, because they think you’re weak. Every day, I see how they taunt you and give you the lowest, roughest work to do. Don’t you hate that?”

“I hate _them_ ,” Tommy said, his jaw tight and his voice steely. This would have shocked anyone who knew him. On deck, he never complained about how he was treated.

“Now,” James said darkly, “you can show them how wrong they are about you.”

Tommy realized James was talking about murder- and the shocked look on his face remained, even as laughter escaped from his mouth. It felt almost instinctual, to not worry about consequences or morality. All he had to think of was what he wanted. He sighed in a strange kind of relief, with the taste of James’s blood still on his lips.

James then explained his plan for when the boat reached America: to re-enter the oldest profession and have Tommy join him.

“I played the game and I did well. But a pretty thing like you, looking so young…they’ll be even hungrier for you than we are for them,” James murmured. He dragged his tongue across Tommy’s collarbone and his lover’s breath hitched in excitement. “It’ll be the easiest thing you’ve ever done.”

“You’re sure?”

“You’ll bring them to their knees.” James whispered, grasping Tommy by his slim waist and pressing their bodies close.

That night, Tommy killed for the first time- the victim was a sailor who had recently beat him for not tying a knot properly. And the very next day, James began tutoring him in the art of seduction. His young man proved to be a very keen student. They started in New Orleans, then traveled back to Europe decades later; preying on all kinds and becoming sought-after gigolos. Being kept men not only allowed them to live luxuriously, it also suited to their need to sleep during the day. It didn’t take long for Tommy’s soul to vanish completely. After a year, a young woman he’d seduced (off the clock, as she was penniless) came to him and explained that she was carrying his child. “If you won’t marry me, please help me decide what to do,” she begged. Tommy gave her a consoling kiss, then offered his solution: he drained her dry and dumped her body, with the child still inside, in the Mississippi River. After this, he felt lighter and more content. The last of his humanity had ebbed away.

Often, both Tommy and James would enter into a legitimate ‘partnership’ with a wealthy older woman, making their kills elsewhere so the money could keep rolling in.

One patron Tommy served in the early 20thCentury had been Sonya: a reclusive, elderly woman who never rose from her bed or chair without Tommy to take her arm. In her youth she had been a renowned ballerina, but a terrible illness stole her looks as well as her strength. In her fading years, she liked to listen to music from her old ballets, or have Tommy read to her. Often he would just sit and listen to her talk, leaving with a goodnight kiss and money in his wallet. After they had been together for a little more than a year, Sonya asked Tommy to witness her suicide.

“You want to die?” He did his best to be calm, but also reminded himself to show concern. As he ran through the easiest way to get her to react the way he wanted, he realized something odd. Unlike his other clients, he had never once resented her- never felt irritation or disgust.

She smiled and took out an ivory-handled knife. It was the first time he’d seen it. “I used to carry this this to fend off some of my more predatory admirers…but I don’t need it any more.”

“You…” He faltered. Of course, he wanted to feed on her, but…He knew that if he were mortal, he should have wanted her to live. But his soul had been gone for decades, and he could no longer remember _why_ he should want that. _What difference would it make? It’s not like she has much to live for, anyway._ _But I have no reason to hate her, and I’m not sure I want her to die._ “Why now?” he said. Yes, he thought, _that_ question made sense.

As she cut her wrists, she whispered: “You always made me feel like nothing had ever changed. I want to die remembering that. I love you.”

“Sleep,” he murmured, planting one final kiss on her forehead.

She shut her eyes, and a faint smile was on her lips. He waited for her to lay still. Then he knelt, lifted her wrist to his lips and swallowed her blood down. Tommy kept the ivory-handled knife she had used to kill herself. If he couldn’t tear into someone’s throat, he preferred to use that knife and no other weapon, not even his navy cutlass.

After Sonya’s funeral, James asked: “Why should you care what happened to her?”

“She wasn’t like the others,” Tommy said. “She was just lonely. All I ever got were kisses.”

“You’re not serious!”

“I think,” he said softly, “She reminded me of my mother. I don’t remember my mother too clearly, not any more.”

“Closing in on 130 years will do that,” James said dryly. “You need to relax.” They went back to their mahogany-and-velvet apartment. After a little champagne in front of a warm fire, and James holding him as they made love, Tommy’s mother retreated even further from his memory. But the knife was never far from his sight.

Tommy and James didn’t care how old or repulsive their partners were, men or women. But the worst partners were the ones that treated Tommy as if he really were a naive child. These men and women- although the majority were men- sometimes admitted to Tommy that they were attracted to children or teenagers. The two predators took the opportunity and killed those people outright, making it look like suicide. These deaths always filled them with more than their usual superiority. James refused to feed on children and this was a rule their kind did not always sympathize with. “I never had a childhood. I won’t steal one from someone else,” Tommy had heard him say more than once. Mostly, the lovers preyed on “rough trade” to get blood. Their own experiences gave them an air that drew young, needy people from society’s fringe. From there, it was easy to flash some money and get their intended alone, only to seize them in the act and drain them dry. Using streetwalkers as prey meant that the police would generally see the deaths as a statistic, and not take the time to investigate. The sad thing about this method was that although the years changed, the ideology still worked. The authorities never came looking for the people who needed them most, and those desperate ones remained forgotten. But as times changed and their selves remained the same, the vampires found it was more prudent to take all the money they had saved up, live away from the public and go off the grid. That was when they had started squatting and living a more nomadic life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Rurh valley really was known for coal mining. 
> 
> There really were male brothels in England in the 18th century, and they were sometimes called Molly Houses. The current age of consent in England is 16 and centuries ago, James already would have been an adult at age 17, so everything’s above board.
> 
> Chapter title from "Lost Brotherhood" by Gowan.


	7. You Were Like a Drug, My Heart Was Pounding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's getting a little annoyed with Dennis.

__

“Either he kills for us tonight, or that’s it,” James said. He was sitting in the theater box with his feet up, and his nose in a dog-eared Charles Bukowski book. James often went up there to think, or speak to one of his housemates in private, and sometimes referred to it as his office. “He backs out again, and the seagulls can take whatever’s left of him.”

__

“You’re getting hard,” Tommy said with a frown as he lit another cigarette. He was draped in the seat next to James’s, and resented his lover for ignoring him by reading his book. “And not in a good way.”

__

“And you’re getting soft,” James shot back. “What’s so special about this one? Come on. We both know you could blink and have five more guys like him lined up.” 

__

“You know I didn’t think much of Todd when you found him, but I was wrong,” he said, hoping to stroke James’s ego a little. “Turning him was one of the best calls we ever made.”

__

“I want to know.” Tommy couldn’t see his lover’s face, because it was covered by his book. In the pause that followed, he couldn’t even hear James breathing. Tommy knew that was a sign that he’d better give him an answer or someone- Dennis, most likely- was going to face the brunt of James’s anger, so he did his best to explain.

__

“Well, I told you he was hung up on his dead boyfriend, and how the bartender told me the whole story of him being the resident sad drunk. But he really fell hard, like a kid with a crush. He did everything he could think of to make me happy; even tried to protect me from the sun. It was…cute, how much he threw himself into it. I guess I got off on it.”

__

James let out a harsh laugh and shook his head. _Oh, of course_ , Tommy thought, _now he puts the damn book down_. “Hooked even without the bond. Remind you of anyone?”

__

“You mean me, when I first met you.” He sighed and flicked his ash into the rapidly filling ashtray on the edge of the box, then dropped his cigarette in as well. “I would’ve thrown myself overboard if you asked me to.” With a rueful smile, he snuggled up next to his lover. The two seats in the box had no divider, so they were quite close.

__

“Sure, you would have, as long as it wouldn’t muss your hair.” His mouth wandered down Tommy’s neck and left teasing kisses. “It’s cute, how he has no idea what you’re really capable of.”

__

“Did you ever feel that way about…her?” Tommy asked, leaning into the kiss. “Did you give yourself over to her, completely?”

__

James glared at him and ended the kiss. “We wouldn’t be here now if I had.”

__

“I won’t mention her anymore,” Tommy said quickly. It was the first time he’d brought up James’s Sire in about thirty years. He still barely knew anything about her, and had never even seen a painting or photograph of the woman he knew only as Nightingale.

__

“You just make sure the new guy follows through,” James muttered. “Never mind about her. She wasted every ounce of potential she ever had…but you, you’re unmatched.” He pulled Tommy back and possessively pressed his lover’s small frame to his own.

__

“Except by you. Just like you planned.” They both knew it was a bitter joke, more bitter for the ounce of truth at the center.

__

______________________________________________________________________________________________

__

It took a long dose of Tommy’s personal brand of ‘persuasion,’ but Dennis did agree to the job- mostly out of fear for his own life, but also out of misplaced trust. Hoping to ease him into it, Tommy pointed out one of the derelicts from town, a man who was obviously in some sort of mental distress and had no known ties to anyone.

__

Dennis lured the man to the theater with the promise of some money- then, sobbing, had clubbed the man over the head with an old baseball bat. It took five strokes with the bat for the victim to stay down. Dennis tried desperately not to think of the man’s family, or how he could have still turned his life around. He stumbled into the lobby and panted: “He’s yours. Do what you have to do.” Then he threw the bat down and ran to his room, looking as if he were going to be sick.

__

Tommy and James found the man’s prone body behind the theater. But even the smell of blood wasn’t enough to win James over.

__

“This guy’s not dead,” James said disdainfully, wiping the blood from the man’s temple. “Didn’t even finish the fucking job. Still, no point wasting it.” He licked the blood from his fingers like a child licking frosting off a cupcake.

__

“This was his first time,” Tommy said. “Remember, Ricky didn’t take to it right away.” He began propping up the dying man’s body against the theater wall.

__

“Yeah, then Ricky took a bullet through the chest so you didn’t have to.” James looked over at the body and whispered: “Hell, I need it so bad. Give me your knife, we might as well take the time to really enjoy this.” Tommy handed the knife over as if it were a ceremonial sword. His Sire was the only person he’d ever allowed to use his weapon of choice. James then pressed the knife to the homeless man’s neck, making his victim’s eyes flutter and his artery spurt. Quickly, James clamped his mouth down over the blood. When the vampire rose up, there was gore dripping from his mouth, down his beard and even a few drops in his long hair. He threw his head back and let out a crazed laugh. With the first hit of blood, both of them were feeling the first rush toward climax, and Tommy could see from the front of James’s pants that he was already hard.

__

“Lover,” Tommy murmured, and he looked at James with hooded eyes. Even without the bond, he loved seeing James in his element- fully in control, while luxuriating in the kill.

__

James licked his lips and held out his hand in invitation. “No, you go first. I want to watch you.”

__

Tommy smiled. “You spoil me.”

__

“Just leave me enough,” James said, putting a hand on Tommy’s back and coaxing him toward the blood. Tommy dove his head forward and drank his fill, lewdly licking the dead man’s face and neck. If there was one thing that brought James joy, it was not the act of killing. It was seeing his blonde angel revealed as a harlot, with blood-red lips. He watched Tommy, like a composer hearing his music being played by a master.

__

“Drink while it’s still warm,” Tommy gasped, taking a deep breath. He looked blissfully sated in all ways - there was a wet spot on the front of his pants, and it was not from blood. James then took the rest of his share. The blood made his cheeks glow with warmth, the way cheap liquor did when he was a young man. He always drank more greedily than Tommy, by digging into the flesh with his crooked teeth. Now, deep jagged marks were left across the corpse’s neck, from James trying to get at that last warm mouthful. After James finished, they kissed, blood smearing their lips. “You were amazing,” James whispered. They went back to James’s room arm in arm.

__

Dennis was sitting in his room alone when Tommy returned to him.

__

“What’s the matter,” said Tommy, “you still can’t sleep?” Dennis shook his head. “You did just fine,” Tommy whispered. “And you’ll get used to it soon. You should see Larry, he’s a natural.”

__

“Hold me,” Dennis said.

__

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dennis kills for the first time. James and Tommy scheme.


	8. How to Kill a Vampire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Actual plot! Chuck and John attempt to figure out just what they're dealing with, and find an ally.

_Four Months Prior to Dennis’s Arrival_

As soon as Chuck was released from the hospital, he had been following reports of people in the news who had been murdered and had their throats cut out. He was trying to pinpoint a likely location for the man (for lack of a better term) who had almost killed him,while still trying to maintain normalcy during the day. So far, it looked like he would be able to keep his job…but despite John’s insistence that he focus on his work, Chuck was growing more obsessed with what the accident really meant. “If I saw one of them,” he warned his brother, “there’s got to be a million more of them somewhere, posing as normal people. They could be coming for you next, to try and get to me. And if this kind of thing is real, what else is real? Demons? Heaven and hell?”

“I don’t want to think about it,” John said wearily. “You’ve still got your life, I’ve still got your back- the sane thing to do would be to pretend this never happened.”

“If you were me, you’d have a hard time forgetting this,” Chuck said. “And what else can I do? We can’t call the cops.”

It was late at night, about a month after the accident. Chuck’s kitchen table was covered in books on vampires and the occult, and notes in his straggled handwriting were tacked up all over the walls of his apartment. He had raided the local library and checked out every book he could find that might give him some answers. There were a surprisingly large number of them. But the more he read, it became clearer that none of this was going to get the job done; the books just repeated a lot of things Chuck had seen in old movies. He knew that he wasn’t dealing with the cardboard-coffin, rubber-bats-on-strings type of monster. He was going up against a serial killer, and asking his brother to join him. To that end, he had also checked out a few books on criminal psychology, which seemed a little more helpful- but he wasn’t sure he could judge the creature he saw by human standards.

“I didn’t even know any of this stuff was real!” John protested, gesturing to the pile of books. “It’s a lot to take in, is all I’m saying! We need a plan.”

“I know,” Chuck muttered. He explained that he had pinpointed some locations that, although they were spread out, had routes that provided easy access to the beach. “I think he can move faster than a normal human. Some of the theories I’ve read do reflect that,” Chuck muttered. “I’m going to try a stakeout somewhere by the beach.”

“I know the police can’t do much, but they have more manpower than you by yourself,” John said harshly. “I’m not letting you put yourself in even more danger while I sit here and do nothing.”

“Then you come with me, or I’m going by myself anyway.”

John sighed. His brother had always been very determined- until recently, John had felt it was one of Chuck’s best qualities. That was what had kept their bond going after the loss of their parents and John’s rocky divorce, and had allowed Chuck to be able to support himself and do well in his career. “Okay. We’ll go together.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

_Shortly After Dennis’s Arrival_

The stakeout had proved successful, but now that they knew _where_ to strike, they needed some guidance on _how_ to confront these forces.

“If only we could hire a private investigator or something. I mean, if it was a devil, we could call a priest. They would know what to do…do you think a priest could kill this guy with a cross, maybe?”

“Nah,” Chuck said in frustration. He got up and filled his fourth cup of black coffee that evening, in a chipped ‘Mom always liked you best’ mug John had given him nine birthdays ago. As he sipped his drink, his eyes darted over to the chain lock on his door. He wondered if the vampire was figuring out how to get to him, just as he was trying to bring the vampire down. “These books contradict each other all the time, and they keep quoting old movies and stories like ‘Dracula.’ But you’re right, if we’re gonna figure out what I saw, we need some kind of expert.” He walked over and patted his brother on the shoulder, and John looked over at his twin’s injured hand.

“It’s midnight,” John said quietly. “Are you gonna stay up all night…?”

“I know you’re worried,” Chuck groaned. “Look, let me run this one thing by you and then you can go home. I was thinking- I painted the set for my friend Lindsay’s dance show while back, right? Lindsay told me me a few of the dancers were into pagan stuff. Maybe one of them knows something about all this, and can give us some ideas.”

“If they can’t help us, maybe they know somebody who can,” John said. “Yeah, ok. I’ll go with you to see ‘em. Just get some sleep.”

The next day, Chuck made some calls. Two women outright refused to talk to Chuck, thinking he was crazy. He decided to ask the third candidate, Miranda, by saying he needed some ‘spiritual advice.’ Over the phone, she seemed skeptical, but agreed to meet him the next day.

They arrived the next evening at Miranda's apartment. Chuck had expected some kind of bohemian paradise, with crystals and star maps everywhere and patchouli in the air. He and John were shocked to see that the place was very clean and minimalist, with beige walls and a bare wooden floor. There was a ballet barre and a large mirror on one side, so her using the room as a dance studio probably explained the furnishings. The only things that were slightly stereotypical were a low table with a tarot deck and a blue willoware tea set on it, and some pillows on the floor in lieu of chairs. 

"So, what can I do for you, exactly?" Miranda said. "I learned to read tarot cards a while back, but I don’t really consider myself a Wiccan, like Anna or a psychic, like Patti.” Her hazel eyes looked out from a slender brown face and she wore a black leotard with a long green skirt. Her curly hair was tied in a knot at the back of her head. “If I had to call myself one thing, it’d be a Buddhist. But over the years, I’ve seen some things I can’t really explain. I swear, Patti’s house was haunted, until the three of us got together and tried to-“

"Ghosts? Do you know about vampires?" John blurted. Chuck could have kicked him. This wasn't exactly a normal problem they were asking for help with, and he had wanted to ease Miranda into it. He had gone over every worst-case scenario in his head before the meeting. Miranda might think they were insane; she might actually be unbalanced herself, and give advice that would get them killed; or it could turn out that Chuck was the lunatic all along and had nothing to worry about. Perhaps the scariest possibility was that he was right: that this vampire and his associates were going to keep picking people off until they got Chuck- and possibly his brother. 

"Real vampires?" she said dubiously. “What makes you say that?”

Chuck held up his mutilated hand.

She didn’t look frightened, but curious, like a forensic investigator. “How’d that happen?” Chuck related the story of how his hand had been bitten off, and the murder he’d witnessed.

“You might be onto something,” she said softly. “I’ve seen that before.”

"So vampires are real?” John said anxiously. “Oh man. How do we know someone’s not after us already?” John pointed to the mirror on the wall, reflecting the three of them. "Like, do vampires have reflections? Chuck thinks a lot of the books we got might be wrong.”

"The problem is, it's easy for vampires to hide and hard to identify them because they seem so much like normal people," Miranda sighed. "The way it is with murderers, or pedophiles." John and Chuck nodded ruefully. "There are some ways to truly identify them, so you’ll have to remember what you saw. There's the bite mark, of course, but you can't go around asking everyone to take off their clothes and prove they're not a vampire. Going in the sun makes them feel feverish on a bright day, achy if it's overcast. But anyone could just be feeling sick. Or they could be _Vertueux_."

"Could be what?" Chuck said.

'A vampire who only kills other killers," Miranda said. "But it's not like they have an ID bracelet for that. The only way to really tell is if you see a vampire’s eyes change- all of them have eyes that change and become gold-colored, along with their teeth growing. But if they're a full killer, their pupils become like a cat's. Taking an innocent life makes you less human." 

"You'd have to get pretty close. Sounds like the only people who would really know are the ones who wind up dead, and they guessed wrong," Chuck said quietly. 

"Cat’s eyes, you said?” she asked.

“ Yeah, I tried to draw him from memory,” Chuck replied. He reached into his soft leather briefcase and pulled out a rough charcoal sketch of the blond vampire. “I even tried to draw what he might look like with normal eyes. But I drew it with my weaker hand, so it’s not a perfect likeness.”

Miranda studied the drawing, and Chuck noticed something stirring in her face. “Do you recognize him?” Chuck asked.

“Maybe from a photograph someone showed me,” she whispered. “He’s not someone I’ve met personally. And if it is him…my search might finally be ending. I better come with you and at least have a look at him, so we can get a better idea of what we're dealing with." 

"We?" John asked. "You mean you're gonna help us take them down?" 

"If I help you, we might have a fighting chance of it." She rolled her long-sleeved leotard down and revealed a bite mark, bright against her shoulder. Below it was a tattoo of a bird on a branch, a nightingale. "A vertueux wouldn’t let him get away,” she said. 

"Wait...wait a goddamn minute," Chuck said, pulling back John. John had been staring at Miranda's shoulder with a bit more than scholarly interest. "How do we know you only kill other killers, or whether anything you said is true? You could be luring us into a trap to kill us."

"Why would you tell your brother about vampires?" she said. "Because you trusted him! If I wanted to kill you, I would've done it already. I know it's a lot to ask, but we both want these people to stop killing, and if you trust me, we can save a lot of lives."

"I don't know you. He's my brother," Chuck said, crossing his arms. 

"Then test me,” she said. "There's razor blades in my medicine cabinet. Take one, make a little cut on your finger and see if I attack you."

"How do you know I'm not a killer?" 

"I'd smell blood on you," she said. "We can tell if it’s innocent blood or not, like animals knowing when to mate." 

"I'm not doing it," Chuck said. 

"I'll do it," John said softly. They turned to him, both surprised at his bravery. John had always had his brother's back when they were younger, protecting him from bullies and getting into misadventures with him. However, he wasn't usually one to be reckless. "If someone’s gotta get hurt it’ll be me," he told Miranda. He left to retrieve the razor. 

Chuck took out the knife he'd been carrying for protection and held it in his hand. He didn't want John cutting himself on a dirty camping knife; he showed it to Miranda and said: "If you hurt him, I'm coming after you." She nodded and gestured for John, who had returned, to cut his finger.

"What's going to happen to you?" John asked. 

"I'll want to drink your blood," she said. "But I will be able to stop myself. I've had years of practice. You'll see the change, but don't be scared." John nodded, and Chuck stood about a foot away from him, knife aimed at the vampire. Tentatively, John held out his thumb and swiped the razorblade lightly over it. He winced as a rivulet of blood escaped the white sliver on his finger. Miranda inhaled deeply. She pressed her hands to her diaphragm, trying to breathe from there. 

_"Nam myoho renge kyo,"_ she whispered. She repeated the phrase several times, trying to stay upright and keep her voice steady. 

"What's she saying?" Chuck whispered, looking fearful.

"It's a Buddhist mantra," John said. “I read an article about it in _National Geographic._ People say it when they meditate; it helps them concentrate and stay calm." Miranda looked as if she were about to be sick and inhaled again, breathing harder. Her lips formed the mantra over and over as she staggered over to the table and sat on one of the cushions. She shut her eyes and then they snapped open- they had gone from hazel to gold, the color of champagne. Chuck gasped at the sight, and held John back with his arm to protect him. 

"Oh...my God," John whispered. 

The fear that had hammered in Chuck's chest started to dissolve. The vampire had not moved toward John, not threatened him in any way. And it was true: her eyes had changed, but were still human. He remembered those cat's eyes all too well. "Miranda," he asked, "Are you okay?" 

"Please, John," she said in a strained voice. John leaned forward slightly to hear her better, and now he gasped too. Those were fangs behind her lips. "Please, go wrap up your finger and...close the door." 

"Okay," John said. Surveying the scene one last time, he made his way back to the bathroom and slammed the door behind him. 

Once the door was closed, Miranda exhaled loudly and fell back as if someone had decked her with a punch. “Gods,” she whispered. “All right, now do you believe me?”

“Who is this guy?” Chuck asked. “The one you want to find.”

“Not just him, but his Sire- the one who turned him- James. I’m his Sire. It took me a long time to give up on confronting him. He had been growing more powerful as the years went on- when several of my kind tried to stand up to him, they were killed. I thought I could do more good by keeping human killers in check and not having any more vertueux lose their lives to James. But if someone’s going to take him on, it should be me,” she said. 

“Then let us be your backup!” Chuck said.

“Wait a minute, _us_?” John said, returning from the bathroom. But he saw Chuck glaring at him and hurriedly added: “Right. I already promised you; us.”


	9. The Case Continues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chuck, John and Miranda continue to draw closer to the vampires. There will be more sex in the next chapter, so hang tight.

The next night, all three had piled into the car. Their pulses were hammering away, even as they tried to hide their fear. Chuck wanted to be annoyed at John for badgering Miranda with more questions, but he was eager to get a better understanding of what they were up against and kept silent as he drove.

“What if we had a crucifix? That would kill a vampire, right?” John asked. “We have a bunch.”

Miranda frowned, studying her reflection in the rearview mirror. “The person who made up that story didn’t seem to realize there were other religions in the world, or that vampires don’t have souls. No, crosses and holy water don’t work; neither would a copy of the _Qur’an_ or any other religious object you had on hand. The most faithful people have tried, and they’ve failed.”

“Do you have a soul?” John asked. 

Miranda shook her head. “If I did, my eyes wouldn’t change at all. But I still have a conscience. Those are two different things. If you kill innocents, they both leave you at the same time. Everyone who’s turned loses their soul gradually.”

“What does it mean, to not have a soul?” John asked.

The two brothers got very quiet. Although they were sure Miranda would not harm them, the idea that the person they were speaking to had no soul was a little disconcerting.

“It’s difficult to explain,” she said. “I remember my past before I lost it, but it’s like it didn’t happen to me, like the memory of a dream. I remember people from before I turned, but the memories don’t evoke any emotion, except the ones of my sire. And no one without a soul fears death, only losing their freedom or power.” She looked back at them, and leaned back in her seat. “Did that help at all?”

“Sort of,” John said softly.

“So when we find James, and his… _eleve,_ ” Chuck said, hoping he used the word correctly, “We’re your backup. How do we back you up?”

“The actual killing of a vampire isn’t difficult,” she said. “What’s difficult is catching them off guard, then getting close enough to do them in. The head has to be cut off, or the heart must be destroyed. You gentlemen need to be armed. Now tell me about the three naissants." 

“We couldn’t get close, but two of them don’t seem all that tough,” Chuck said, hoping against all hope that this was true.

Miranda nodded. “Their kind tend to pick servants based on loyalty; they’d much rather have a person who would never leave them than a champion boxer. Especially someone they can isolate, no friends or family…it makes the bond even deeper. These people won’t be that much stronger than you, but they will fight you like hell, which makes them unpredictable.”

“They’re people, not vampires?” John asked. Miranda nodded, and he sat bolt upright in his seat.

“We are not committing murder,” John said firmly. “Saving other people from a monster is one thing. But if those other guys aren’t vampires, they’re still people.”

“I understand where you’re coming from,” Miranda said. "But they're also playing a role in these killings." 

John looked over at Chuck. "Yeah," Chuck admitted. "It's not morally right, it's not easy, I'll give you that. They might have been forced into this at first. But what I saw...I don't think I can open up anyone to that."

John did not look convinced, and turned his eyes from Chuck. “Don’t you lose your soul on me.”

______________________________________________________________________________________

"I can't believe you were so close by," John said quietly, after they had driven over and observed the hideout. Not much had happened. “Someone must have led you to us." 

"I don't know," Miranda said. "I ended up here because I knew there was a lot of crime downtown, so I'd never go hungry. And that's where your brother got attacked. I never went to that park, men just used it to meet up. I'd have stuck out too much." 

"I'm glad you're here anyway," John said. "Please don't let anything happen to Chuck. He's not well."

Over the next few days they continued to plan their attack. As Miranda explained- if the two brothers didn’t know the details of being a vampire, they had no hope of killing a vampire, so she tried to impart as much wisdom as she could.

“Their reflexes are much faster and stronger than a human’s, so I could take one of them by surprise, but not two. As for you two, forget it. What we need to do is try and weaken them by getting rid of at least one of their naissants; they’re mortal, so if we can kill one of them or at least separate them, they won’t outnumber us. You said there are three.”

After comparing notes from the stakeout, the group realized that of the two men who were regularly seen leaving the house, one of them tended to come and go within an hour of the same time each day. He also walked, trying to vary his route each time. “You have to act fast. If he’s not aware he’s being followed already, he’s expecting someone to watch him,” Miranda said. "And the police don't know they're looking for vampires. So let's keep that in mind- every move he makes is going to be focused on the blood." 

“I think this guy’s their supplier,” Chuck said. “He’s always got a backpack with him, could be animal blood for the other rookies in there. It’s not like he’d be carrying human remains. So we have to figure out where he's getting it from." 

‘What if it’s just human blood?” Miranda said.

“But where would he get that?” John said in horror- “Oh…the hospital!” They looked over at the notes Chuck had brought with him, and the local hospital did indeed fit into the pattern of where the man had been traveling. 

"But wouldn't the hospital notice him taking all that blood?" Chuck asked. 

"Not if he's siphoning off a little bit at a time from different samples, then cutting it with animal blood to make it look like he didn't take any. Probably pig's blood," Miranda said. 

"But that would kill whoever was getting the blood!" John cried. Miranda's withering look told him all he needed to know- the people they were up against didn't care who died, directly or indirectly. 

‘If we cut off their supply, we can draw them out ,” John reasoned. “Remember when our house had roaches, but Dad couldn't afford to call the exterminator? So we cut off their water and made sure they couldn't get at our food. If we can find some evidence of a murder and hand the guys over, the cops'll think they're crazy and get them off the streets.”


	10. Origins 1: Alone and Palely Loitering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Larry relates the story of his turning and seduction by JY. Shameless smut.

The next night, Dennis, Larry, and Todd couldn’t sleep-Tommy and James were loudly ‘indulging in’ one another. The three naissants decided that they might as well get to know one another a bit better, and each explained how they had been turned. We all know Dennis’s story, but Todd’s.. and particularly Larry’s… were less straightforward.

Before being turned, Larry had been a disaffected Canadian art student, prone to brief yet intense bouts of spirituality. He had dropped out of college to “find himself” and wound up in California, where he joined a few cults specializing in watered-down Eastern philosophy for white college kids. After two years of this, he grew disillusioned and left to live on an agrarian commune. He lasted only eight months there and quit the place after a bout of severe anemia. He felt he had never really fit in among his fellow hippie types, and was beginning to get disgusted with authority in general. That left him a perfect fit for LaVeyan Satanism. When he moved with the church to Dayton, Ohio ( home of their parish known as the Stygian Grotto) he met a Satanic priestess named Ingrid. They say an appreciation for aesthetics is a Satanic virtue. If this is true, Larry instantly attained sainthood when he saw Ingrid. She had long auburn hair, “eyes I could get lost in for centuries, and a body that could launch a million battleships all the way to Pluto.” He was willing to do anything for her, no matter how stupid or degrading it was. Dennis began to shift uncomfortably in his seat when Larry got to this part of his origin, as it sounded all too familiar. At first.

“I never thought I’d enjoy wearing assless chaps and eating out of a dog dish, but there you are,” Larry said wistfully. “Happier times and all that.”

“You did _what_?” Dennis asked. If he had been drinking coffee, Larry would have gotten a spit take, right in the face.

“Another kinky trip down memory lane,” Todd muttered. “You just had to get him going.”

“You’re lucky,” Larry said to Dennis. “You experienced a deep and meaningful relationship with someone before you lost them. Death is terrible, I’ll grant you that. But when you go from feeling pure, childlike joy every time she makes you lick her boots, to weeping and tearing your clothes as she screams ‘Larry, get out,’ well, there’s no coming back from THAT, am I right?”

Dennis didn’t even breathe. “Is…is this you joking around again?”

“Don’t I wish,” Larry laughed. “No, it’s just the bright elusive butterfly of love catching up with me.”

“Just tell him how it ended so he can put on his shocked face again,” Todd said wearily. “Some of us have heard this story a few….dozen…times.”

“Well, she told me that she was leaving. So it was just me and my oldest and dearest friend, Prince Albert-“

“What, like that old crank call joke? Tobacco?” Dennis said.

“No, my piercing, Ingrid did it for me. My underwear usually covers it, but I can show you-“

“Don’t you dare,” Todd said.

Larry shrugged and continued: it turned out that Ingrid had been on a religious retreat in California shortly before the breakup. She called on some selected members of the group to go on another ‘retreat’ with her, and Larry accompanied them. He was already suspicious that Ingrid had met someone while she’d been away. She’d been very hostile to him.

“So one night, she brained me with a fireplace poker, and when I woke up, I was naked and tied up. But this time, it wasn’t foreplay.”

Larry woke up in the woods and saw Ingrid drinking James’s blood. They were both fully nude, and she was on her knees, lovingly drinking from a gash on his inner thigh. _I never made her moan like that,_ Larry thought. His heart was clouding his logic- he was so upset at seeing Ingrid like this, with another man, that he didn’t even realize what she was doing. 

Larry was stunned when James ignored Ingrid and met his eyes…and winked. _Who the hell is this guy?_ he thought.

James looked deeply into Ingrid's eyes and helped her rise to her feet. He said: "I give you permission to find your first victim, and take their blood." He then drew her into his arms, tilting her head back slightly, and gave her a devouring kiss. Larry heard her sigh with longing, but she didn't look disappointed when James let her go. 

“Thank you so much, gentlemen,” Ingrid said as James’s wound began to close. She stretched, standing and looking stronger than Larry had ever seen. Then she looked down at Larry and smiled with bloodied lips. “Hello, Lawrence dear.”

“Oh, Christ,” Larry whispered. It was only when he saw her teeth that the pieces began to fall into place. “Ingrid….you’re a vampire?” Someone he couldn’t see tossed a long blue dress through the air - Larry recognized it, it was Ingrid’s favorite. She caught it and began putting it on.

“Yes, thanks to the friends I made in California. When they wanted payment, I naturally thought of you,” she said, pulling on the dress and fluffing up her hair.

“You said you loved me,” Larry said helplessly.

She laughed. “I love the way you always did what you were told. Don’t worry, I’m sure they will too- once they slit your throat.” Tommy appeared and kissed her on the cheek, and she lightly returned the favor. “Thank you for your help. Hopefully the next time I see you, I’ll have some naissants of my own.”

“We’ll be around,” Tommy said, and with that, Ingrid disappeared into the woods.

James, wearing nothing but a wolfish grin, looked down at Larry. Tommy had left them alone together. “Don’t look now, but your fly’s open,” he said softly.

Tommy appeared suddenly again, just behind James. He was holding James’s clothes in a neatly folded pile. “I think we should turn him, James. Ever since we lost Wayne, Todd’s had his hands full.”

Larry was wailing now, straining at his bonds. “You…you stole her from me!”

James rolled his eyes eyes as he started to put on his clothing. “You’re going to cry over her? She made me look downright subtle; she’ll get found out and staked in no time.”

"Why should I have to get murdered, while she lives forever?" Larry said, his rage spilling out in tears. "Heartless bitch! I gave her everything, I gave her my whole life!" 

Tommy and James exchanged a very knowing glance. As they explained to their prey later, they’d heard this kind of thing before. Larry seemed to be overdoing it, as if he were going for an Oscar. James’s expression read: _We can still get him to join us. Try not to laugh._

“We never said we were definitely going to kill you,” Tommy said coolly. Larry immediately stopped weeping.

“Keep talking, I’ll listen,” he said. Then he looked down at his bonds. “I mean, it’s not like I can just walk away.”

James smirked. “You’re funny. That’s a good sign. So’s your pretty mouth.”

"You don't need her," Tommy said. They talked to Larry for a long while, and this did calm him down a bit. They assured him that if he joined up with the two of them, he would live many years, and that they would need his help navigating the outside world.

"Sometimes I think I’m screwed without her. I got the whole group mad at me for always siding with her," Lawrence replied. If someone else had been there, they might have told Larry he was being hysterical. But he was on his own, and to him, this was the truth- after giving himself to someone as completely as he thought he could, and being rejected…. his life had seemed rather empty.

"She told me all about you and your little kinks. You loved her because you love surrender," James said calmly. He sauntered up to Larry and grabbed his face, tilting it up towards him. "But you want it _all_ , don’t you- not just being stroked and taken care of, but the pride that comes from someone wanting to own you. " Larry inhaled sharply, his eyes closing and his head jerking to the side a little. James removed his hands and looked down, smiling. “You’re hard. Already thinking about what I would do to you, once you started serving me.”

“I want to live forever," Larry panted. “I want what you gave to her.”

Years later, James still remembered sensing how much Larry wanted to be bitten. Every craving in his heart was visible through his gleaming eyes- to be desired and possessed, to be loved, to hold something over his ex-lover's head. He was so needy that James knew they could easily find many uses for him. “If you let me turn you, it’ll be enough to stroke you, pet you...” James ran his fingers through Lawrence’s raven hair and saw his captive was drawn to the touch, to James’s power. “Not fully. As long as I live, you live, more or less. But if I die, well, you’re out of luck. So is that really what you want?”

“That, and…I want you to take me,” Larry breathed.

"Done," James whispered. “Cut him loose, Tommy.” Tommy used his ivory-handled knife to cut Larry's bonds. Once his arms and legs were free, Lawrence knelt in front of James, the way Ingrid had. Then he bowed his head and shoulders in perfect submission. Even his expression was beautifully composed: meek, reverent, with lowered eyes and a slight pursing of the mouth. _He was born to this,_ James thought. 

"Make me yours," the kneeling man whispered. James raised him to his feet and held him fast by the back of the neck. His rough mouth trailed kisses along the clean lines of Lawrence’s neck and shoulders, and James began searching for where to bite him. _Such a lovely, pale throat,_ the vampire thought.James decided to mark him in front at the clavicular head, right above his collarbone. Tommy's mark was like the knot of an elegant scarf, resting between neck and shoulder; this one would be like a collar, reassuring Lawrence that he belonged to James. “The first time always hurts a little,” James said. His voice sounded like sin itself. After a pause too short for a breath, he bit down. Lawrence groaned, somewhere between pain and pleasure. As his master fed on him, Lawrence's entire body went taut, and James dug his fingers in and gripped the other man's narrow hips to hold him still. 

“Master,” the dark-haired man whispered, breathless and coming. James’s bite had sent a thousand shocks through his body, and they could both feel each one. His eyes were wide and staring.

“Yes. Your turn,” James whispered. Tommy appeared with his knife drawn, and James commanded him- “On my chest, right there.” Tommy made a little incision and James pushed Larry’s head down where the blood was flowing. Larry drank as much as he could, then found he couldn’t stand upright. He fell to ground in a swoon. Tommy got his hands under Larry and propped up his head and legs.

“You are pretty,” Tommy said, giving Larry a peck on the forehead.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

They let Larry rest, then he woke up in the old theater. Everything in his head was still hazy, and he was cold. _My throat,_ he thought. _It’s so dry…_ He had been laid, still naked, on an old mattress that sat center stage. James was fully dressed in a three-piece suit and watching him from the box of the theater - although Larry felt more like an exhibit at the zoo than a performer. Tommy was standing in the wings, holding a shoebox. His face was as impassive as a marble angel’s.

“I’m thirsty,” Larry said, his voice creaking. “Please…help me?”

“Of course,” Tommy said. He opened the shoebox, set it on the ground, and stepped back. “Go catch your dinner,” he said. Out of the box, scurrying for its life, jumped a live rat.

“No!” Larry cried. There were pains shooting through his head. It was like the worst hangover imaginable. His knees were weak, he was dehydrated. He could barely make sense of his surroundings- and now he had to run after a defenseless creature and kill it with his bare hands? “I-I can’t.” The rat darted past him, making its way to climb the proscenium.

“Do it,” James shouted down from the box. Larry hesitated and looked up at his master. “I want to watch you kill,” James said, his voice ravenous. There was that old feeling again, like he felt with Ingrid- Larry knew he shouldn’t do what he’d been asked, but he wanted to be rewarded. The impulse drove him on, like the need to fight or flee from danger. It was even stronger than his thirst. He ran after the rat. 

Instinct had taken over and Larry was soon tearing into his prey and drinking its blood down. Tommy had joined James in the box seat of the theater to watch, and they couldn’t stop snickering.

“He won’t need much training,” James said, flirtatiously pulling Tommy’s hair to the side and kissing his neck. “I haven’t laughed like this in a while.”

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After Larry fed on the rat and got cleaned up, James took the young man back to his room. “Earlier, I was wondering if you were just going to bite me and leave it at that…” Larry let his voice trail off. He was comfortably resting on James’s bed: wearing only his earring, freshly showered and reclining like the sphinx. He met James’s eyes and smiled.

“I knew you’d look gorgeous in my bed,” James said. He now had on a black silk robe and nothing else. The vampire came closer and sat down on the bed next to Lawrence, admiring his naissant’s lean body and noble features. Gently, he traced his fingers up the curving line of the young man’s behind, then stopped at the small of his back. “Sit up for me.” When Larry did, James stopped and clicked his tongue.

“Ahh, did she do this to you, _mein ganslein*?”_ James’s hand prodded the piercing at the man’s groin, and the light touch- combined with the nickname- made Lawrence feel weak. He nodded lightly, trying to maintain a little dignity for James before the act began. 

“You like that name?” James said, his voice rough.

“I don’t know what it means,” Larry said. “Please, don’t stop…” James began caressing his naissant’s flawless chest and arms. The heat from the shower and the scent of pine soap were still lingering on the young man’s body.

“Your skin’s so pale and beautiful. I can mark it better than she ever could,” James growled, his head rushing forward to nip at the other man’s ear. His _ganslein_ laughed impishly in reply.

He grabbed Lawrence’s face and kissed him as if he were breathing him in. Then he pulled away and held the other man’s head in place, flashing a cruel and eager smile: “Undress me.” Lawrence carefully untied the knot that held James’s robe together. The robe parted open and he slid it off his master’s shoulders and into his own grasp. The black silk draped against him as he held it to his chest, waiting for instruction- it looked like midnight against his white skin.

“Put it on the chair over there, but take off the belt and give it to me,” James commanded.

Larry got up and smiled- he was flirting, but also eagerly anticipating the belt. “Yes, Master.” He did exactly as he was told, ending by sitting on the bed and holding the satin belt out to James. The naissant’s head was bowed, but there was still a sign of mischief on his lips.

 _He’s already been tied up,_ James thought. Now was the time for something a bit different. When Tommy was the one being tied up, he still acted rebellious and always tried to break free. James loved that about him- it was just what he himself would have done. Larry, on the other hand, had worn bonds like a model wearing a corset: he held himself as if on display, knowing how tantalizing it was to be seen in such a way. James wanted to see how far this naissant would go. Through the years, he always enjoyed testing their limits and seeing what unique things gave them pleasure. “Raise your head,” James said. His voice was low and businesslike. When his naissant’s head was up, the vampire ran his fingers over Lawrence’s mark. It had blossomed vividly over his neck and collarbone. “You’re healing already, good. Let’s try something. Do you trust me?” Lawrence nodded. James took the belt and wrapped the ends around his hands. He proudly held it up before him in an arc, hands up and wrists bent. “Our bond won’t affect me when we do this, I’ve trained myself to hold my breath. So: I’m gonna pull this around your neck, leave it there for a second…and watch you. How does that sound?”

“Yes, sir,” Larry whispered, eyes wide. “Please, sir.”

“So, you know how good it feels,” James said. Larry nodded. “Pound the mattress with your arm when you want me to stop,” James said, and waited for Lawrence to nod in consent. “I’ve done this before, so nothing can go wrong,” he added, his voice low. He reached out quickly, but took his time actually wrapping the shining strip of fabric around his young man’s neck. Looping around once, he kept the line slack and put two fingers between the man’s neck and the black satin circling his throat. Once he was certain that the belt would not crush the larynx or Adam’s apple, he was satisfied. “Breathe now,” he prompted, his voice hot and demanding in his lover’s ear. Larry inhaled deeply and James, with both ends of the belt in his hand, pulled up under Lawrence’s chin. As James gripped him, Lawrence gasped for air with his neck taut and raised. His hair tossed back and his knees trembled under him. The young man’s mouth twitched, whispering silent words of need, pleasure and pain.

His mouth yearned and Lawrence saw the world going white before him. Through the dizziness, he could only sense the iron grip of his master holding him in submission, those warm fingers pressing at his neck to keep him safe. His lifeline. Lawrence felt James’s mind calling to him. He couldn’t put it into words, but this was what it sounded like to him: _I need you, I need to keep you here because you’re so precious to me. Mine forever. Your body is mine. Your life is mine._ His head was beginning to hurt and he pounded down on the mattress. James released him and Lawrence fell back, blood and air rushing to his body again- the forces that sustained them both. It was only about five seconds, but so much had occurred. It felt like minutes to both lovers. The exhilarating sensation of breath wrapped Lawrence in its embrace, spiking his brain with dopamine. All material thoughts and sensations left him as the high took over. He was left writhing on his back with his cock hard, his eyes shut, and a grin born of madness.

“Look at me,” James said. He wore a grin to shame his lover’s.

His submissive opened his eyes and looked at him- dreamy-eyed, flushed scarlet. The belt had fallen around his shoulders like a scarf, and his mouth was wet. “Oh, _sir,_ ” he cried.

James breathed in and let Lawrence’s feelings flood his body- the feeling of being debauched and loving it. He climbed on top of his new prize and continued to explore with his hands and lips. The young man was still tingling all over from the sudden rush of breath, and being touched like this was more than he could bear.

When he moaned: “Please, Master, I’m about to come,” James broke away.

“I’ll help you hold it off. We can do it together.” He directed Larry to get him the lube from the bedside table and come kneel in front of him with his back turned. When everything was in place, James kissed the young man’s shoulder as he lubricated his own hands. He began to explore his servant’s entrance with his fingers, teasing him a little and then working inside. His naissant gasped- the sensations were so intense that every touch seemed to last minutes, over every inch of Lawrence’s insides.

“I love that you want it so badly,” James whispered, his other hand sweeping over Lawrence’s ass and grabbing him, holding him in place. “But you can’t finish until I tell you to.”

“Please!” he cried. “I need it…”

James’s sex roughly entered him. The vampire wrapped his arms around Lawrence’s waist and then pushed forward, thrusting as if he would break the young man in two. James brushed his cheek against the man’s dark hair and kissed the nape of his neck. “So deep in you,” he said with a low burr, and thrust into him still harder. He kneaded Lawrence’s flat, taut stomach, and felt the other man squirm as he pressed down. “Feel that, where it’s tight? That’s me inside you, and that’s where I’ll stay. Just like our blood.”

“Deep inside me…” Larry moaned. His hands hand fallen to his sides as he grew more fevered. He could no longer focus on stroking himself as James pushed harder and harder, grinding against soft flesh. Lawrence yelped, his hips thrusting and bouncing forward as James fucked him right down into the mattress. With Lawrence’s ass in the air, his limbs splayed, James let out a roar and came, and the wave of energy hit his partner too. “Ahhh!” Larry cried, feeling pressure releasing through his hips.

“Fucking you has been a pleasure,” James sighed as he pulled out. “So I’ll return the favor.” Lawrence had fallen back, and was so painfully hard he was dripping. James looked on with curiosity, then took Larry’s sex into his hand and began stroking him to completion. “Come for me,” James said commandingly. The vampire considered every flawless element in Lawrence’s surrender: Eyes dilating and tearing up; his lustrous black hair, disheveled and pushed back off the high forehead; the motion of his hips; the lover’s mark vivid against his white throat. The breathless cry of “Master!” as he came again- and finally, the desire flowing out onto James’s hand as they both felt the release once more.

“Don’t you look well-fucked, ” James said, all dark satisfaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *German: "Ganslein" means "little goose" or "gosling", and this is a German term used to describe a younger man who is 'kept' in a sexual relationship (here, Larry) by an older one (here, James). It is from this term we get "gunsel" a euphemism for the above used in "The Maltese Falcon."
> 
> This work is not intended to be an accurate depiction of LaVeyan Satanism or any other form of similar worship/philosophy.


	11. This thing we keep, and dip into when we need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rated G for Gowan and Gratuitous smut, and F for Foot Fetishism. It’s not plot heavy but Tommy and Larry do have an alliance they’re not telling James about.

Naturally, it wasn’t long before Tommy got a little curious about their new naissant. He kept shooting looks towards the dark-haired man- licking his lips, meeting his eyes just a little too long. It came to a head when Larry found a note under his pillow.

_Wait until he goes out, then come to my room. Knock twice. –T_

Larry knocked twice.

“Is that you, J?”

“No, me,” Larry said, his voice trembling a little.

“I had to be sure,” Tommy laughed. “You can come in.” Larry entered to find Tommy sitting up in bed, smoking a cigarette, with nothing hiding his lithe, bronzed body- not even a robe or sheet. The dark-haired man’s eyes widened.

"I didn't invite you here to seduce you," Tommy said. 

"You mean...not _just_ to seduce me?" Larry said with a smile. 

"You like what you see." 

"Very much," Larry whispered. 

"Maybe later. Right now, I need your help with something," said Tommy. "If you can keep a secret." He put his cigarette in a nearby ashtray and Larry wondered: Tommy always seemed to be smoking, but his voice and body never seemed to show any signs of it. _I guess being a vampire has all sorts of advantages._

Excitedly, Larry nodded and wondered if this would be anything like his experiences at the Temple with Ingrid. "Occult stuff?" 

"Nah. But I think you're the one to help me." Tommy explained his former life and how he and James had become rather wealthy over the years, with money hidden in various banks and investments; and his ties with a certain group. “They’re friends of mine, and they weren’t so lucky. We have….a lot in common, although they’re not exactly like us. I’m helping them out with an investment. Let me get dressed and I’ll show you.” When Tommy was presentable and had his dark glasses on, they took a crosstown bus to a very bad part of town. Their destination was a self-storage facility. Tommy unlocked the door to the unit, and at first, Larry was confused at what he saw: several library card catalogues, along with some valuable looking items towards the back. Tommy told him to open the drawers, and Larry was amazed to see the drawers were not filled with cards, but people’s ID’s, jewelry, wallets, and watches. “I’m a fence,” Tommy explained, gesturing to the valuables in the back- these included car radios, clothing, bags and briefcases. “That’s my pet project. I sell this stuff to my friends for their front, a pawnshop. Then they rack up the prices even more. You can guess where all these came from- a couple decades’ worth. They get a lot of inventory on their own, although I’ve been able to get more high-class stuff. More profits for everyone.”

There were also some very deadly looking weapons in there- guns, knives, brass knuckles...“What about all these?” Larry said, picking up one of the knives and staring at it in fascination. “Oh man, you could shoot a mob movie with all this stuff!”

“Don’t need it,” Tommy said with a shrug. “Neither do they, but this stuff sells. James doesn't know about any of this; he doesn't like anyone outside the group to know too much about us. But he never asks where the money comes from.

“Where do I come in?”

“I want you to help me deliver,” Tommy said. He gave Larry a wicked little smile, the kind meant for only two people. “I think you can keep a secret.” After going through what the gang wanted (mostly knives, guns and jewelry), and one or two more valuable items- a blue woman’s bicycle, and a portable radio. “James told me he’ll be gone most of the day tomorrow- that’s why he didn’t let you out of his sight for three whole days. While he’s out, I want you to go to my friend’s bungalow. I called him this morning and told him to expect me. He’ll inspect all the stuff-it should be fine- then he’ll give you the payment. He and I worked out the numbers, here.” Larry accepted the notebook Tommy handed him and flipped through it. “He’s a good friend but don’t let him stiff us.” Larry set off the next day as he was told. Throughout the trip, he couldn’t stop thinking of the glimpse he’d had of Tommy, or what he’d been promised. He did think of James, too, and what he’d said before he left: “Don’t forget who chose you.” 

He enjoyed making the trip, and negotiating with his contact. As much as he had enjoyed having Ingrid use him as a footstool, pierce him or lead him on a leash like a dog, she had never trusted him to carry out an important task like this one. It went far beyond arousal; Larry made the drive home feeling good about himself. He felt even better when he presented Tommy with the fat envelope of money, and saw those blue-green eyes light up. 

“Very good,” Tommy said, fanning out the bills. “Just keep following my lead and you’ll be fine. You’ve gotta play it cool with them.” Larry nodded, thinking that this was because Tommy’s ‘partners’ were part of the criminal underworld, but he blinked in surprise when Tommy added: “If you piss them off, they’ll smell you and come right after you.”

“But…” James had told him a little about how vampires could sense killers and supernatural beings, so Larry was a bit confused. “You said they weren’t like us?”

“Werewolves,” Tommy said with a smile. “Ones who are glad that the ‘silver’ thing is an urban legend, or they’d have missed out on a lot of cash.” Larry nodded, remembering all the watches, jewelry and money clips he’d delivered to the dropoff point. “I think we could both get to like this, Larry- you can make the trip with no problems and it’s not like Ingrid gave you any pocket money. If James asks about it, you can just say I asked you to hold the money for me.”

“He’d know I was lying,” Larry muttered.

“I know that’s part of your whole... well, I get it, you feel like you have to tell him everything,” Tommy said, patting the naissant’s shoulder in sympathy. “But let me worry about it, if we get caught. He’ll know it was my idea.”

“How long have you and him known each other?” Larry asked. Tommy was hiding half the money in his cache- an old liquor cabinet that looked like a large world globe on a wooden stand. 

“We met before your great-great grandparents were born,” Tommy said as he snapped the lid of his hiding place shut. 

“Oh…wow. You look younger than I do.”

“It's been him and me for a while, but you’re one of us too. So let’s enjoy ourselves.” He flashed the money he’d set aside. ‘30% of this is yours, for anything you want." 

The young man couldn’t just leave that where it lay. “You already know what I want,” he said. Lawrence grabbed Tommy’s free hand, intending to press it to his lips. But he’d been thinking about this throughout the trip, and couldn’t stop himself from leaning forward and kissing the blonde man’s mouth.

Tommy kissed him back and traced his fingers over Larry’s neck and markings. “He called and told me he’d be back tomorrow afternoon. We have all the time we need." His eyes darted down to Larry's clothes, which consisted of frayed jeans and a very worn flannel shirt. "Is he really making you wear Todd's hand-me-downs?" 

"I did show up naked," Larry said, shrugging. 

"We gotta fix that," Tommy said, smiling rakishly. He unbuttoned the top buttons of the flannel shirt and left a lingering kiss on the naissant's mark.

The next day was overcast, so, once Tommy's glasses were on, they made a trip into the city. There, Tommy found that he liked picking out things for Larry. Larry had his own ideas, but was still willing to take some of Tommy's suggestions. This wasn’t an interaction he could have with the rest of the group: James was always well turned out- quite the peacock, in fact- but not about to accept anyone else's opinions. Todd was known to wear shirts with holes in them, and often forgot to change his socks. Tommy himself dressed tastefully, while making sure to avoid undue attention. Above all, he was meticulously groomed, in order to show himself off to his best advantage. He tried to do the same for his companion, and beamed when Larry liked something that he had chosen. Naturally, all the shopgirls fought over who would serve them- they had money to burn and knew they looked good spending it.

“You think all the people who work in places like this get off to it?” Tommy wondered as they browsed different types of shoes. “They like to watch girls in heels step on bugs and people’s feet, that kinda thing?”

“Maybe I missed my true calling,” Larry said. Tommy looked at him with interest, and he clarified, with a cheeky little smile: “Doesn’t have to be a woman’s feet." 

They still had not slept together. They knew they would reach that point before the day was over, but they both knew the value of a slow seduction. Things quickened when Tommy stole into a changing room with Larry and, without a word, began helping him dress. He stood behind him, his hands snaking between Larry’s arms and torso. Carefully, he buttoned the paisley shirt that Larry was trying on. It fit him perfectly, and Tommy smiled as he tucked it into Larry’s new, flatteringly tight pants.

“What does he call you?” Tommy said as he began threading a belt through the loops on the pants.

“He told me not to tell,” Larry in a silky voice. His fingers were resting on his zipper, and he pulled Tommy’s hand over to feel the bulge that waited there.

“Then don’t tell him what I’m gonna call you,” Tommy replied, running his delicate fingertips over the bulge. He stopped to buckle the belt and grazed his lips over the other man’s ear, leaving the barest hint of a kiss.

“Make me into anything you want,” Larry whispered, reaching behind him and running a hand down Tommy’s thigh. They could see themselves in the mirror, and it was like seeing what would unfold later, at home. The urge was becoming overwhelming. Despite his eagerness to please James, Larry secretly hoped Tommy would offer to take him right there in the dressing room. He could hear himself agreeing to it: the idea of being opened up and ravished, forced to bite his lip and hide his screams while everything around him continued as normal…it had always excited him. Ingrid and he had once made violent love in a broom closet in the Cinncinnati Art Museum.

“You’re my little doll,” Tommy said. He nodded toward their reflections and Larry grinned, cheeks flushing. “Because you’re so _pretty,_ and you like to be played with."

“Yes,” Larry breathed, hips rolling back against Tommy’s pelvis. He could feel the other man’s want, pressing into him. 

“Good doll,” Tommy cooed, clasping his prize by the waist. "I like this shirt on you, nice and tight. I bet you can sneak out with it on, under the new jacket I just got you." 

"I'll take that bet," Larry said. "Take me home?" Without another word, they grabbed their bags, snuck out of the store and dashed back to the car, and they were able to get the shirt home without paying a cent.

Soon, they were back home, tucked safely away in Tommy’s room and about to bring this long dance to a close. Tommy was undressing the other man once again, saving the clingy new shirt for last. When it was tossed aside, Tommy reached out and flicked Larry’s nipple. “Pretty little doll,” the vampire said. “Show me how to play with you.”

His lover broke away and stretched his bare body out on the bed. Languidly, he ran his hands down his chest, his torso, feeling goosebumps rise on his spotless pale skin. “Let me feel your mouth all over. I want you to ruin me,” he sighed, practically singing it. “Ruin me, ruin me…”

“Oh, yes,” Tommy said. He straddled him and began leaving love marks all over Larry’s chest, not caring if James saw him making a claim of his own.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

James was always aware of their liaison and its place in the group. For everyone’s well-being, Tommy and Larry kept their affections as private as they could. And the games continued, with Tommy asking Larry to explain his fixation on people's feet. Larry ran through what he had envisioned while they were shopping, and they agreed to act the scenario out once James had left for another hunt. When they were finally alone together, they stood before the full-length mirror in Tommy’s bedroom.

“Zip me up, Doll,” Tommy said. Larry began helping Tommy into a pair of black motorcycle boots, while Tommy preened in the mirror - pouting his lips, fixing his hair. The naissant was zipping up the first boot, on the left, when Tommy glared down haughtily at him and said: “No, use your _teeth._ ” Larry went down on the floor, lying on his stomach like a snake, and carefully bit the zipper pull. It took a few tries to get the zipper up, but he slowly began to zip the boot closed. Tommy continued gazing at himself but occasionally stole glances at Larry.

Larry knew he was looking, too, but soon panted: “Done.”

Tommy gave a three-quarter turn away from Lawrence and extended his left leg a bit. He looked down at his boot, hands on hips and putting his weight slightly to one side, so his ass was sticking out. “Now the other one,” the vampire said in that haughty, bored manner. He then turned a bit more and blatantly admired his own ass, prompting a wry smile from his submissive. Then Larry started on the other boot, and Tommy’s eyes watched him closely. He could see how hard Larry was struggling to get it zipped. “Good little Doll,” Tommy whispered when the task was complete. He bent to stroke Larry’s head and Larry basked in his dom’s glow, leaving a fawning kiss on the black boots. He bowed his head and left more kisses on both, below the ankle and working his way up to the knee. Each kiss was more loving than the last. “And you’re so _cute_ ,” Tommy said with an acquisitive smile. 

“I just need to finish. Take off the boots and let me fuck your feet, please,” Larry gasped.

Tommy was frustrated that he had to take the boots off after all that time getting them on. Still, he liked that Lawrence was so specific about what he wanted. Most people he’d been with were disappointingly vague. He undid his boots and tried to remember the last time someone had asked him to do this. At Larry’s bidding, he sat on the downy bed and went into a butterfly stretch. The high arches of Tommy’s feet formed a lovely curve- the shape was close to a woman’s vulva.

“You want to fuck this?” Tommy invited, running a finger down the inside of the curve.

“Yes- beautiful,” Lawrence panted.

Tommy gave him a little wink. “Go to it.”

His submissive placed his cock within the curve and began rubbing, drawing his hips back and forth. “Ohhh,”he moaned, his cock pressed snugly between Tommy’s arches. “You’re tight all over… so smooth.” The vampire enjoyed the sight so much he couldn’t help touching himself, fucking his cock with his fist. He didn’t even stop as Lawrence finished all over his bare feet.

“Made a mess,” Tommy said tauntingly. He pointed to the state of his feet. “We can’t have that. Clean it up.”

The naissant obeyed, but when he was done, he winkingly asked: “You think I should be punished?”

“I think I’m gonna paint that pretty face,” Tommy hissed. He sat up and moved to the edge of the bed. “On your knees, in front,” he said. He began pumping his cock, inhaling deeply and letting the touch overtake him as if it were another person’s grasp. He pumped harder, his breath growing ragged. Now Tommy’s blue eyes took on an evil gleam - he had never been lovelier. Lawrence gave a little gasp as Tommy came all over his face, both men shuddering and panting.

 _His heat...against my skin..._ Lawrence thought.

Later that evening, James and his two lovers were going over the day’s spoils around the green room table. James had lifted large bottle of whiskey off a couple he’d ‘run into’ on their way home from a shopping trip. Larry was getting progressively drunker as James and Tommy debated what else they would do with the couple’s cash and other items. Tommy was trying to seem cagey about the fact that he wanted to sell off most of what James had found. 

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Larry said as he realized just how much he’d drank. He grabbed Tommy, and giggling drunkenly, said: “You’re gonna have to carry me to bed.”

“Whoa, calm down, Larry,” Tommy said, laughing nervously. This wouldn’t stand if it got out in the open.

“But I need you,” Larry teased. He got to his feet and stumbled, but Tommy got up and caught him. “See, you can do it…”

“Sure,” James said, in that calm voice that meant trouble. “Let the bitch drink til he passes out, and then you’ll have another hole to stick it in.”

“He’s kidding,” Tommy said quickly. “He’s just kidding.” He looked over at his shoulder. “Go lay down,” he told Larry. Larry stumbled away, looking rather hurt, and Tommy turned back to his sire. They didn’t see that Larry hid behind the door, which was slightly ajar, to hear what was being said about him.

James grabbed the bottle and took a long swig of what was left. “I smell him on you.”

“Just passing time,” Tommy said, moving to James and standing behind his chair. He patted his shoulder. “Come on, you know me better than that.”

“You mean I know all your tricks.” James yanked Tommy over and drew him onto his lap.

“I could never replace you. He’s nothing like you,” Tommy said meekly. 

_“_ That’s right, _mein kleiner_ _arschlecker**….”_ James said, laughing as he roughly ran his hands over Tommy’s body- rubbing against his groin, giving him a little spank.

“I hate when you call me that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * German: “My little ass-kisser,” or literally, “my little ass-licker.” Mozart, surely, would approve of my multi-chapter crime against the English language.


	12. Origins 2: And Isn’t That What Brotherhood is All About?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todd's backstory. We’re only using Todd’s full name here for the sake of a very stupid joke. Still not the real people, just characters who physically resemble them.

Todd had once wanted to be king of the California outlaw bikers.

He rode with a gang called the Rattlers, whose repute was just ill enough- although he was still a kid out of high school when he joined, so he was considered a ‘hang-around’ and subject to a lot of hazing. He hadn’t even earned the right to wear the club’s full insignia on the back of his jacket after three years in the gang. This was when he was 21 years old, the year he met James and Tommy. It all started during a big gathering of different biker gangs in a little town in Monterey Bay. That weekend was ‘all hands on deck’ with every gang: everyone wanted protection from the other gangs, and a fighting chance at the races planned for that weekend. Todd jumped at the chance to prove himself to the Rattlers, who’d been literally and figuratively busting him for the past two years. He came ready to fight and ride. About 3,000 people showed up- and there were even some all-female gangs among them, which added to the excitement. The bikers were on such high alert that everyone expected a full-blown riot to break out. This proved to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It started with a few drunk fights late at night, then escalated into vandalism, looting, illegal street racing, and full-blown gang violence.

By midnight, the highway patrol had given up and was calling in some cops from neighboring towns to come in and clear people out with tear gas. Everyone felt like they were on the brink of losing control, and Todd was thinking that coming here was more than he could handle.

Todd tried to think things out as he lit a smoke behind “Ruby Love’s Liquor Store,” the kind of place cockroaches did their best to avoid. The gang had sent him out on a beer run, and the cans of beer were next to him in a cardboard box. At first, he’d been hoping something would go down so he could come back a hero, but now he was grateful for the opportunity to smoke in peace. Right on cue, a loud crash sounded- someone was inside, breaking the merchandise. Todd peeked around the side of the building, wanting to see who had done it. He was concerned for the rumpled old man working behind the counter, who’d been nice enough- it was the other gangs Todd wanted to get one over on, not an old man who was just trying to sell booze. Warily, he went back into the store. A large man with a bushy beard had been threatening the old man with a gun and messing up the bottles. There was another guy in there who’d evidently been using the pay phone- he was standing outside it with his hands up- a tall, thin guy with long blonde hair and a mustache that sat on his upper lip like a thick plastic comb.

“That’s everything from the register, I swear,” the old man said as he held his hands up and ducked his head like a turtle. “Take the money and go, please!”

“You too, buddy,” the bearded man said, taunting the man at the phone by waving the gun. “Hand your wallet over.”

“Don’t fuck with me,” the man with the weird mustache said. He sounded more annoyed than anything else, like he was in a meeting at work that was running too long. None of the three men seemed to notice Todd walking in.

The bearded man laughed, and walked up to the man who had just dismissed him. “I said I’m gonna blow your head off. Did you hear me?”

Todd clocked the man on the back of the head with a nearby bottle of Old Granddad. “You didn’t hear that, ” Todd asked as the hairy biker fell to the floor, grunting. He dropped the bag of money, and the gun.

The man at the phone met Todd’s eyes. They both started laughing as he ran and picked up the gun. “Nice one. I gotcha,” the stranger said, pointing the weapon at the bearded man. “Hands up, ‘buddy.’”

“Yeah,” Todd said, grinning ear to ear.

“Mmm- I’mm gonna kill you,” the man on the floor stammered. His feet couldn’t get steady in a puddle of whiskey and broken glass, and he tried to get to his feet, but Todd’s fist connected with the his jaw and he went down again.

“Shut up,” Todd hissed. He started kicking the hairy man’s sides with his heavy boots.

“Ahh, fuck!” the prone man screamed. The man from the phone only laughed, playing keep-away with the gun as Todd continued to kick.

When his target stopped moving, Todd took the gun from the other man and put it in his own jacket. Then he picked up the bag of money and returned it to the trembling old man. “Here you go.”

“I wish I never set eyes on any of ya!” the old man said. “I’m calling the police- you people are all going straight to hell!”

“I got news for you, grandpa- you’re stuck there with us, right now,” the blonde man laughed. He put his arm around Todd, saying: “You’re good. Tell me how you got so good.” He held the door open and they left the shop together.

“Thanks,” Todd said sheepishly, not used to compliments. See, he really was tough, he thought to himself. He just saved two lives, armed with nothing but a bottle! Even a total stranger had more respect for him than his own gang did. The man asked him what gang he was with and what they were like.

“It’s all right,” Todd said after explaining for a while, leaving out just how little respect he got. “We do all right.” This guy, though….he seemed pretty intense, and not just in a ‘I’m ready to kick your ass’ type of way. Todd felt a little uncertain of his intentions, but genuinely wanted to know more about him. “Who’re you here with?”

“Oh, my buddy and I are just here to people-watch,” he said with a crooked smile. “We never could resist a freak show.”

“You’re gonna piss someone off, talking like that,” Todd warned. “Who are you, anyway? What’s your name?”

“People call me J,” James said. “What about you?”

“Todd Sucherman.”

James snickered. “That can’t be your real name.”

“You serious?” Todd had endured some taunts about his last name in middle school, mostly variations on the phrase ‘you suck’. But he figured that no one would bother with that now- _except the gang_ , he thought bitterly.

“Your name sounds a lot like ‘blood sucker man’. Like you’re a vampire,” James explained.

“Oh.” He hadn’t ever heard that joke, and wondered why it would come up now, out of nowhere. “Sort of? That’s kind of a stretch.”

“Also ‘Todd’ is spelled like the German word for ‘death’, so that fits in good,” James added, punctuating this with a little finger wag. “Although your last name actually would mean ‘seeker man’ in German. I was born in Germany.”

“Were you raised by Nazis?” Todd said, frowning.

“I’m a lot of things, but I’m not that much of an asshole,” James said darkly. Todd nodded, feeling relieved. “So- are you a seeker? What are you looking for?”

“I don’t know, man,” Todd said. This was getting a little esoteric for him. “I don’t want to join a cult if that’s what you’re thinking. I came here to get away from people telling me what to do.”

“Us too,” James said. He looked over Todd’s shoulder and waved to someone coming out of a bar behind them. “That's him now, Tommy." 

Tommy waved briefly, as he had a girl on each arm and obviously didn’t want to them to get away. One had a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses on her head, and the other wore a scarf tied around her brunette hair. “Look what I found,” he said, showing them off. “You don’t mind if we head back to the room?’

‘Whoa, we never said we’d go back to your place,” the girl with the glasses said, scowling at him and dropping his arm. “You’re cute, but you’re weird.”

“Let’s get outta here,” the brunette said, pulling away from the blonde man and tugging on her friend’s arm. “This place is givin' me the creeps anyway. We better get back on the road.”

“You’re right,” her friend said.

“Where the hell are you going?” Tommy said angrily.

“Far away from you,” the brunette said. “There’s other guys on the way to San Francisco." 

“Get lost, loser,” the one with the glasses agreed. They strode away proudly, scuffing their Beatle boots against the asphalt.

“You can’t just leave!” But they were already leaving, and there were too many people in the streets for him to go after them. They didn’t even look back as he shouted drunkenly: “Whores!”

James snickered. He knew Tommy would have gone after them if the streets hadn’t been crowded with people. Todd wasn’t sure how Tommy thought the women were ‘whores’ if they had just turned down his offer of sex, but he kept quiet. “It’s okay, this night’s not a total loss,” James said, gesturing to Todd.

Tommy looked Todd up and down, and did not seem impressed or remotely pleased to meet him. “Speak for yourself. He doesn’t look like much.”

“Quit worrying about your blue balls for a minute,” James snapped. “This is Todd. He saved my ass a little while ago. You should’ve seen him.”

“Are you guys coming on to me?” Todd asked. “I mean, it’s ok if you’re gay, but I don’t get where you’re going with this…”

“Not quite,” James said. “Let me put it like this- we have a paying job for you. But we don’t want to pay you in money.”

Todd looked around- no, nobody was going to hear them over all this drunken partying, all the fighting and drugs being passed around. “Drugs? Like, hard shit?”

“See, you get it,” Tommy said, perking up a bit.

“I don’t usually mess around with that stuff…” _Once was more than enough, no matter how fucking good it felt,_ he urged himself. _You’re lucky to even be alive. But that stuff would be worth a lot of cash. I could sell it_ , he reasoned. _Not to a girl or a kid, but some burnout who would be looking for it anyway._ “What do you want me to do? Get rid of somebody? I don’t go looking for that, but I’ve been in fights that went wrong before. I know what to do." 

“What if I told you we had something that would get you high….and would let you live forever?”

“Are you high right now?” Todd said in disbelief. James beckoned him to come closer. When Todd did, he drew him into a nearby alley and opened his mouth wide, exposing his fangs. They grew pointed, right before Todd’s eyes.

“Holy shit,” Todd whispered.

“Now do you see why I laughed when you told me your name?”

________________________________________________________________

“I want him,” Tommy said once they were back in his depressing little motel room. The walls were paper-thin, but the crowds outside were so wild, no one would hear if Todd started screaming in the middle of his turning. “Please… I need it. I’m gonna fall over. My head’s not right, J.”

James looked down his nose at his lover. “Aren’t your ‘friends’ here? They won’t share with you?”

“They’re going to get a little, mmmm, annoyed if I bug them,” he mumbled. “I mean, they were hitting on those girls, too, but the girls got spooked and asked me to get them outta there…”

‘Oh, and you don’t want to admit you didn’t score,” James said. “So you decided to come whine to me.”

“Hey,” Tommy snapped. “You try to score when your competition is three werewolves in heat and let me know how that goes, ok?”

Todd hadn’t wanted to interrupt what was obviously a lovers’ spat, but he did have a few questions about what he was about to do. “So I’d be a what? A naissant?”

James said yes and filled him in on the particulars of naissanthood, including the sexual connection they had with their sires.

Todd asked: “Seriously, are you asking me to go to bed with you? I’m just not feeling it, to be honest.”

“Doesn’t have to be like that. Every gang needs an enforcer, right?” James said, nodding encouragingly. “If they wanna get to us, they gotta go through you. You were great back there.”

“I always did want to cut out on my own,” Todd said softly. “The guys I came with, they wouldn’t miss me. But couldn’t you just turn me?”

“No, we need someone who knows how to run things. Someone who can actually spend a lot of time outdoors during the day, without feeling like they’re gonna puke. And we need someone who knows how to be loyal. Those guys you’re with really piss you off, but you haven’t stabbed them in the back once, or they wouldn't bring you to a place like this. Trust is worth more than anything. But you know, he and I do have a lot of money saved up, and we know how to spread it around….” James took a very impressive wad of bills out of his jacket pocket and held it out to Todd. “There’ll be a lot more when you’re covering for us.”

“More?” Todd whispered, thumbing through the bills.

“Girls, too,” Tommy whispered. “I can get them for you. Just hand them over to me when you’re done.” Tommy touched his shoulder in a knowing way. Abruptly, he dragged James to the corner of the room. As always, Tommy preferred to discuss his own needs:

“I can’t ask those guys for anything. Jack would be ok with it, but Ted…look, you don't want to interrupt an Alpha when he’s eating. I made that mistake once, and if it wasn’t for our healing, I’d have needed skin grafts.” They heard a strange noise and turned back to the bed where Todd had been sitting.

Todd had tied the bandanna he kept in his pocket around his arm. The noise was him slapping his forearm.

“What are you doing?” Tommy said in an amused voice.

“Finding a vein,” Todd said, looking up at them. “I’ve done it before.”

“We don’t need help with that,” Tommy laughed. “Give me your arm and I’ll do it myself.”

“You shoot junk?” James asked with mild curiosity. “You said, usually-“

“I….tried it once. The day after scared me so bad, I had to drink myself into a stupor. I know once you start you can’t stop. But I’ve watched other guys do it, a bunch of times.”

James held up a hand to stop him, then said- in a way that sounded oddly reassuring: “This is better.” He took Tommy aside and said: “You bind him. But you stop right away and leave me some. Tomorrow, you get him to find someone for me, and I drink alone.”

“Fine,” Tommy said curtly. He took the arm Todd held out and examined it. “Right there on your forearm, that’s a good place.” 

Todd nodded. “Like a tattoo.”

“Hold on,” Tommy whispered, then clamped down on the man’s arm.

“Ahh!” Todd cried. He felt an open flame lick between his legs, behind his eyes. Tommy continued drinking, with Todd’s arm in his jaws like a dog with a bone.

The vampire raised his head and licked a rivulet of blood from the corner of his mouth. “Mmm, nice and strong,” Tommy said, cat eyes gleaming. He took out his knife and made a cut inside his elbow. “Come get it, Bloodsucker.” Todd drank. It felt something like drugs, something like dreaming, but James was right- it was better. Unlike a dream, he could feel everything; unlike booze or drugs, he knew he wasn’t doing this to hide or relieve boredom. He was entering a new way of life, truly expanding his consciousness. All sense of time seemed to melt away, leaving only the future before him. He fell back onto the bed as if he were passed out.

“Good boy,” James said in a dark whisper. “That money’ll hold him for a while.”

_________________________________________

“You never slept….with them?” Dennis asked, feigning innocence after Todd finished his story.

“It’s not like that,” he replied. “Especially not when this one came along.” He put his arm around Larry and gave him a peck on the cheek.

Larry gestured to himself, holding up his hands and pointing them inward. “I can’t blame him, really.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The identity of Tommy's 'friends' should be fairly obvious.


	13. Bonding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Larry meets Todd and we find out what “going feral” means.

One day, James and Tommy brought someone new home, someone they evidently had no intention of sharing.

Todd had not been introduced to or told anything about this newcomer, which was not how things had gone with most men, or several of the women, who’d been in the home. Although he soon figured out the stranger was a man, that man spent his first few days shut up in James's room like a hothouse flower.

All the naissant’s rations were brought to the room. The only indications of a fourth housemate were that the animal blood supply dwindled more quickly, and that Todd's sleep was interrupted by unfamiliar moans and cries. Todd went about his business as normally as possible until he could stand it no more and entered the room after James left. 

The fourth housemate was getting out of the shower- there was a towel around his hips, but Todd could see how trim and well-formed the man’s body was. There were red love marks all down his pale neck and chest; Todd could understand why the men who 'employed' him had been so attracted to this man. 

"Good morning," the stranger said. He made those two words sound like a caress, the kind that would leave Todd weak.

"Hi," Todd said, finding that other words had left him, and that his tongue lay heavy in his mouth.

The stranger introduced himself as Lawrence-or-Larry, and added: "They told me there was a fourth housemate, another naissant. I was wondering when I'd meet you." 

"No, you're the fourth housemate," Todd said. "I've been here five years. I guess that seems like a blink to...them, though. I'm Todd. What have you been doing the past three days?" 

"Don't tell me you don't know,” he said, pointing to a distinctive mark on his white wrist. “You been handcuffed yet?”

Todd assured him that he got the idea, and they briefly filled each other in on their origins. "I guess you got the same treatment when you came here," Larry said. 

"You mean days of....nah, it's not like that," Todd said. "They said they needed an enforcer, and that's what I do, what I always did. I just make sure no one’s on their back about living under the radar, fix up the electricity from time to time.” There was a loud noise from the back of the theater.

'Shit," Todd muttered. “Someone’s in here.”

"Cops?”

“The city doesn’t care about this place, and they don’t have the money to fix it up or knock it down to make a parking lot or something. So the local cops think we’re a bunch of small-time crooks squatting here. Usually if someone comes poking around, we can bribe them. Listen, man," Todd said. "How good are you in a fight?" 

""Well, before I was a submissive Satanist, I was a hippie," Larry said. "You tell me." 

"Well, it's a good thing it sounds like one guy," Todd sighed. "Put some clothes on and come with me." 

Larry covered himself as quickly as he could, but he used James's robe. Todd looked at him and said: "In that? He'll have a clear shot at your junk."

"When he sees it, he’s gonna back down," Larry said. 

Todd was unsure if this was a joke or not. But they had to defend their home, so he grabbed Larry's wrist and dragged his companion behind him. "Just cover me and do what I say." 

"So, how good are _you_ in a fight, huh?" Larry asked. 

"I ended up in a fight with two Hell's Angels and I lived to tell you about it!" Todd said. 

"I bet you got your ass handed to you," Larry replied. 

"…yeah," Todd admitted. "My old friends never let me forget it. But shit like that makes you work a lot harder the next time." They headed to the back, where Todd had heard the noise. There was a big metal door there, not unlike one you'd see on a garage or in front of a store when it had closed for the night, and also a scaffold in one corner with some old tools stacked on it. The metal door had been added to the theater to easily load in cumbersome equipment or set pieces.

Someone had jerry-rigged a way to prop the door open and slide underneath. And there they were: a tow-headed kid who couldn't have been past 18.

"Who the hell are you?" Todd asked.

"Doesn’t matter. I saw you and the other guys here with a dead body." The kid pulled out a knife and added: "I bet you guys got something going on here- drugs, money. You're gonna give me a cut, or I go to the cops." He looked over at Larry in his robe. "Huh? I bet you'd do real well in prison, mary." 

Larry looked at the kid with disgust. "Let's shut this kid up." 

"My pleasure," Todd said. He was already visualizing Tommy and James drinking the kid’s blood- it would serve him right.

"You wanna fight?" the kid said defiantly. "Okay!" His bravado slipped at bit on the last word, however, because he looked from Larry to Todd, who looked (rightfully so) like someone who'd seen a few rough scrapes in his day. 

"Kid, there's two of us and one of you," Todd said calmly. "You could just walk out, never tell anyone about what you saw, and save yourself a lot of trouble. This is your last chance, so think about it- if you saw us, we didn't think you were much of a threat. If we had a dead body, what does that say? Get out." 

Larry studied his new friend intently. He'd been affronted, but now that he had a minute to compose himself, he was impressed at Todd's handling of the situation. He wondered what would come next. "I think you got to him,” Larry observed with a smile. 

"What the hell do you know?" the boy snarled. He held out his knife in front of him and gestured for the two to come get him. "I'm not afraid of you!" 

"Good for you," Todd said dryly. He charged at the boy, who held up the knife in defense and slashed at his leather jacket. Todd managed to knock him to the floor and delivered a punch to the side of the boy's head, making him drop the knife. Larry picked the knife up and put it in the pocket of his robe. The boy was howling, but Todd began slamming his head into the floor until he quieted down. 

"Not bad," Todd said, sitting on the boy's limp body so there was no chance of him getting up to fight again. Blood was starting to drip from his nose and mouth. He pointed behind Larry. "Go get the gun." 

"We're gonna kill him?" Larry said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I thought we were just gonna scare him.”

"It's a nail gun, but yeah, that's the general idea," Todd said. Something about Todd's tone made Larry's teeth itch. Not because he sounded cavalier, or frightening, but because he was speaking like an older brother figure, trying to make Larry comfortable with the idea of killing. 

"Oh, man, I don't know," Larry said. "He's still a kid." 

"He was ready to stick you with that knife. If he came at you, you'd defend yourself." 

"But..." Larry looked around helplessly, as if he had walked onstage and didn't know his lines. "I've never done this before, man. When I signed up for this, I thought it'd be like catch and release. They didn't kill my girlfriend, even though they could have. They just drank a little of our blood." 

"No," Todd said with a knowing laugh. "They told me about going to get you. They said she promised them 'a beautiful young man' as payment; when I asked if you'd be coming home with them, Tommy just laughed and said he'd see how hungry they were." 

" I guess it's nice to know I'm attractive," Larry muttered. 

"He could still make good on that promise. Pick up the nail gun, and your safety is guaranteed. You see how good you have it now? That won't last if you don't do this. It's one second." 

"That's it?" Slowly, Larry walked over and picked up the nail gun. The concrete floor was cold under his bare feet, and he suddenly felt very exposed in his robe. He weighed the gun in his hand and asked: "You're sure it'll just be a second; you've done this before?" Todd nodded. "And we won't get caught?" 

"I doubt it. I'll show you how to get rid of him after we drain him." 

Larry aimed the gun, testing how it might fire. "Okay." Then he came closer to the boy and pressed the gun to the boy’s forehead. “Only a second,” he said, to reassure himself.

"He’ll go out like a light," Todd agreed.

The trigger clicked, and the boy's neck gave a sickening twitch forward. Then his head and neck froze in place, leaning toward the floor. A shining nail head protruded from between his eyebrows, with just a hint of blood coming through beneath the wound. 

"Damn," Larry breathed, clutching the nail gun as if for dear life. "I did it. I actually did it." 

Rising, he patted Larry's shoulder. “Takes a while to get used to.” Then he looked over at the prone human body. "Well, Tommy and James won't be back for a while and he won't keep. I guess today, you learn how to salvage blood." Before Larry could express alarm, Todd was lending him a pair of pants and directing him on how to properly carry a dead body.

First, they put some newspapers down in the bathroom, as if they were children working on a rather perverse crafting project. Then took the body to the bathroom. Larry plugged the drain and made sure the seal was water tight while Todd brought in a clean two-gallon bucket, the kind that formerly held paint. Once the corpse was stripped, it was Larry's job to hold it in place while Todd drained the body with a box cutter and caught the blood in the bucket.As the blood was running into a bucket, the smell of it was overwhelming the less experienced of the two. Up until this point, Larry had only fed on small servings of pig's blood, administered by James. The sight and scent of all that fresh blood was like a shot of 12-year old bourbon to a young boy who'd just had his first mug of beer. His knees were actually weak as he knelt to drain the corpse and got a whiff of the blood - he had a strange impulse to rip into the dead man, the way a starving wolf might. "Ohhh," he groaned, sinking to the floor on his stomach. "God, do you...do you feel that?" 

"No man, come on," Todd said. "I've been there, but we can't let this go, we have to finish the job or the blood'll be wasted and go down the drain. Just breathe through your mouth."

“Can’t we just take some?” Larry whispered, sounding drunk.

“We can’t go against them,” Todd said. “Didn’t they tell you about going feral?”

"A little…oh man," Larry sighed, struggling to lift his head. 

"Open your mouth and breathe deep." 

Larry, still lying on the floor, gave Todd a dazed smile and put a hand on the kneeling man's thigh, rubbing it hard.

Todd sighed. Arousal and disorientation were common in this state- they didn't call it blood _lust_ for nothing. Larry was probably a very sloppy drunk, Todd, thought, based on how he was acting now. "Oh, jeez. I’ll give you a drink when we’re done.” Todd said. "Now breathe through your mouth for a sec, then help me."

Larry obeyed, moving weakly, and he managed to help Todd collect the rest of the blood. When their task was finished, he asked the all-important question: "What about the evidence?" 

"We burn the face off, so the cops can't identify him. Then we cut him up, dump it all in the ocean, and scrub everything in this place with bleach," Todd said. “I rigged up a blowtorch for his face, you'll get the hang of it.” There was no response from Larry, who was staring at the paint bucket full of blood. “Oh, no, man,” Todd cried. “Don’t- let me get you some of ours.”

“I just want to smell it,” Larry said. Todd knew that look. He’d seen that look on guys who swore they’d never shoot up again, never take another drink- and before he could stop him, Larry had dipped his finger in the blood and put his finger between his lips. His reaction to that first taste of human blood could only be described as orgasmic- again, that was a look Todd knew from his biker days, from people who followed it up with: “This is good shit.” But as Todd knew well, those words could lead to a trip to the hospital, or even the morgue.

“Taste it,” Larry whispered. His pale eyes were fogging over- not turning gold, the way James or Tommy’s did, but unnaturally dark at the iris, with dark blood shooting across the whites.

 _He’s gone feral,_ Todd thought as slapped Larry’s hand away. “No,” he cried. “This is bad. You’ve gotta-“

Larry reached out and grabbed Todd’s shirt, drawing him close to him. “Do it,” he said, his dark eyes rolling in his head. “We don’t have to wait for them to turn us-“

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Todd barked. “I can’t. You’re sick, Lar! You’re gonna forget your own name if you don’t let me help you.”

Larry smirked at him, revealing bloodied gums and pointed teeth. There was far more blood in his mouth than could have been on his finger- and Todd noticed those fingers had sprouted long, clawlike nails. He ran his clawed hand lightly over the back of Todd’s neck and inhaled deeply. The look of hunger, not just lust, was in his eyes. “ _Christ,_ you smell good,” Larry groaned, pushing his hips against Todd as if to rut.

 _Oh god, I knew it would be bad, but I’m so not ready for this…_ Todd thought.

“Don’t,” Todd whispered, frantically thinking back to what James and Tommy had told him about going feral. If he didn’t get Larry away from human blood and give him a ‘clean dose’ very soon, he’d literally be dead meat. 

He looked like he was going to rip Todd’s throat out- or worse. “ _Baby_ ,” he groaned, his voice needy and ragged. Like twisting branches on a tree, his clawed hands shook. As he raised the claws up toward the other man’s face, Todd knew Larry was going to sink his nails into him, just to get at his blood.

“Kiss, baby,” Larry whispered, pursing his lips. Todd knew that this was essentially an invitation to get his face torn off. Whatever it was that was infecting him, it was spreading. His lips were now slightly blue, and his speech was a little more slurred. Were his teeth growing? 

“Let me get you something,” Todd said. “You need-“

“You,” Larry hissed, and Todd did his best to hold him back. He felt a lot stronger, the other naissant noted with panic. He could shut him in the bathroom, but the blood was in there and that would be like leaving a sniper in a warehouse full of bullets. But they were right outside James’s room…and Todd did know of something in there that might be helpful. “On the bed,” he said. Larry dragged him from the bathroom and roughly tossed him onto the bed. Todd dove for the nightstand to his right, and pulled out the handcuffs Larry had mentioned. They looked like they had actually been stolen from a cop- knowing James, they probably were. There was a struggle. Larry’s nails did scratch Todd’s face, but the feral man was so busy trying to go for the wounds that he didn’t expect Todd to hit him in the chest. The wind was almost knocked out of him, but it gave Todd just enough time to handcuff one wrist to the headboard. “Fuck,” Larry cried, his eyes bloodshot as if from disease. “Get back here… _mine_ …!”

“You’re really fucked up,” Todd snapped, and dashed over to the bathroom door. He didn’t want to touch the blood until James and Tommy got home, so he opened the door a crack and hit the button on the inside of the doorknob to lock it from the inside. _Oughta be safe for a little while….but he’s fighting hard,_ Todd thought, as Larry tugged and banged the handcuffs against the metal bars of the headboard. _If I don’t dose him now he’ll never snap out of it._ He had to restrain Larry in some other way until he could get him some animal blood and keep him still. Could there be another pair of handcuffs in the nightstand? Although Larry came back for another onslaught, Todd opened the drawer and pulled the entire drawer out of the nightstand. Then he used it to knock Larry’s groping hand away- small things, like handkerchiefs and papers, flew out, giving him enough of a smokescreen to escape. Todd then retreated just outside the bedroom door with the drawer. There was no second pair of handcuffs waiting inside, but there was a ball gag. He wasn't certain he could get it into Larry's mouth without getting his fingers bitten off, but it looked like the best option for now. 

Todd girded himself and slammed his body forward so he was sitting on Larry's chest. He felt the bound man try to buck under him and push him off. Clamping his hand down on Larry's nose, he forced him to open his mouth. By shifting his weight onto his elbow and elbowing Larry in the chest and gut, he was able to force the gag into his drooling mouth, then strap it in place. Larry growled angrily, but Todd whispered: "I know, I know I'm an asshole. But I had to do it. I'll be right back. If you move, I'm gonna let Tommy finish off whatever's left of you." So saying, he grabbed one of James’s belts(one he didn’t wear terribly often) and used that to secure Larry’s other arm.

Then, Todd went to the kitchen to tend to the scratches on his face. He returned to the room a few minutes later with a little eyedropper full of blood. Todd had set rat traps in the basement and thankfully, two of them had been filled since yesterday. Todd knew that if the dose was fresh, Larry would recover more quickly. Again, the man on the bed was thrashing and angry, but he was less crazed than before. He seemed to have tired himself out from fighting so much, although Todd could still feel the feral heart thudding in his friend’s chest. Todd nudged the dropper between the feral man’s lips and let a few drops loose. The muscles of Larry’s throat were straining, swallowing the drops like he was dying of thirst. Behind the gag, he let out a shuddering moan. “That’s right,” Todd whispered. “Have some more…” He gave him half the bottle, and felt the muscles in Larry’s body go slack. The feral man no longer looked like an animal, just ill- his eyes were more red than yellow, and he was sweating like he had the flu. Todd took a handkerchief that had fallen nearby and dabbed at Larry’s face and forehead. “Rest now. I’ll give you some more in a little while.” The man’s watery eyes stared up, and he groaned softly, but Todd shook his head. “No, you need to stay put. The guys will be home in about two hours and we’ll see then, okay?” He headed downstairs and locked the door behind him. Todd made some motor-oil-grade coffee and read the paper for a while; then he crept back into the room and gave Larry, who had fallen asleep, another dose. When he felt Larry’s cheek it was cold and clammy, so Todd drew up the afghan blanket around him. “Your eyes are almost back to normal,” he said. “In another two hours, maybe we can take the gag off.” But there was a loud bang and then he heard that James and Tommy had returned home. Todd ran to meet them and gave them a complete rundown of the evening’s events. James went to have a look at his naissant while Todd and Tommy gathered up the blood and moved it to the fridge.

Tommy and his own naissant also took the remains outside, and Todd set the body up to be marked with the welding torch before it was cut up and disposed of. Before he did, however, he came to check on Larry and update James on their progress.

“You’re good,” James said, patting Todd’s shoulder. “As always, Bloodsucker. He’ll be fine by morning. Now, let me talk to him alone.”

Todd nodded. “Don’t be too rough on him, it was his first time. Hey, now that you’re home, we could leave him there but take the gag off-”

James glared down at him, making the most of every inch of height he had over Todd. “You’re not _that_ good. Go take out the trash.” 

“Right, sorry; leaving,” Todd mumbled. He’d never seen James look at him that way, and knew that he’d be in very deep shit if it happened again.   
Later, Larry related what had happened while Todd was out: James did not remove his gag, but did examine him, checking his eyes, his heart and pulse. He said: “I wish I had seen you fire the gun. But you’ll be fine tomorrow. You can sleep next to me then.”

Larry tried to smile behind the gag. The bond wasn’t necessary for James to see that Larry was begging him to remove the gag, but James just shook his head. “Might as well enjoy it.” That was when Todd had entered and James angrily dismissed him. When they were alone again, James climbed on top of his naissant and ran his fingertips over the straps on the gag. He pressed his lips to that porcelain cheek and began to kiss his lover, teasing him with little touches. Soon, he was whispering his version of sweet nothings: “ _Mein ganslein._ You love it when I fuck you. You’d be begging for it, if I cut you loose.”

The weight of his master’s body on him, James’s long, silken hair brushing his neck and chest…Larry would have found all this arousing, if it hadn’t been for what happened earlier. In his distress, he groaned out loud. 

“You want me to stop?” Larry nodded. “All right,” James said mildly, and rose from the bed. As he tucked him back in, he laid a kiss on his lover’s mark and rasped: “ _Du gehorst mir._ Screw him if you want to. But you know better than to put him ahead of me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> James’s parting words in German are “You belong to me.”


	14. Finishing the Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dennis is finally forced into committing his first murder.

James had grown more hostile to Dennis than usual, since he felt that Dennis’s first ‘kill’ hadn’t really counted by their standards. In fact, Dennis got some very unwelcome news one day when he, Larry and Todd were taking their day’s share of blood. James actually confronted him and said: “Until you can kill, not just take a lucky shot, you will be the last to drink.” Tommy stood behind James, remaining detached and expressionless. James motioned for Dennis sit back down and yanked the cup of blood out of his hands. The vampire pointed to the other two naissants and said: “You two take what you need and give him whatever is left over.”  
“Tommy?” Dennis asked softly.

But the younger vampire only looked disgusted with him. “We’ve been over this,’ he told his naissant.

Dennis looked ready to burst into tears.  
Convincing Dennis to kill would have been almost impossible if Tommy hadn’t made him dependent on their bond. The group came to a point where Tommy had made love with Dennis every night for two weeks, for long hours- and not just for their enjoyment, or to boost his ego. Sex had made their bond stronger. Through the bond, their orgasms now always happened concurrently and were continually doubled; every part of Dennis’s body had grown more sensitive as the acts were repeated. He barely left Tommy’s side whenever they were both awake.  
James noticed just how dependent their new recruit had grown on Tommy’s presence – the night after those two weeks ended, the vampire insisted Tommy spend the night with him, not Dennis. This left Dennis a pale, twitching wreck the next day.

  
“Look at the circles under his eyes- and that’s only after one night. Ask him now,” James had whispered to Tommy.  
“If you help me,” Tommy had told Dennis, “I’ll sleep with you tonight. But if I end up going out alone, it’s going to be someone else.”  
“Isn’t it enough that we can be together?” Dennis whispered. “You don’t need them. We can protect each other.”  
Tommy replied: “No one’s standing in your way but you. You don’t need my protection.”

  
James also remembered how Larry became much more acclimated to killing after going feral. The day after Lawrence recovered, his sire had ordered him to find a beautiful woman and bring her back to the theater. He was then to make love to her while James watched in secret, and kill her at the moment of climax so James could take her blood. Todd was shocked when Larry had accepted, and followed through, without hesitation.  
Therefore, James thought Dennis would benefit from some kind of shock to the system. Tommy agreed to the plan ‘within reason,’ and James began going through the details. Larry overheard them and offered to take the lead on converting their newest member.  
“He won’t take orders from you,” James said, his eyes darting back and forth between his two lovers. “Tommy is the only one he really trusts, and maybe Todd. When you want to exploit someone…you start with trust,” he said, reaching over and lightly flicking Larry’s earring with his finger.  
“Me being cold to him hasn’t worked- it just makes him needier. Same with bribing him with sex, or you scaring him, J. Based on all that, I think he would agree to anything if he thought I was in danger,” Tommy said confidently.

  
“It does add up.” James frowned and paced the room. He studied the faces of both his lovers, wondering if the two of them, and possibly Dennis, had some hidden plot against him. Were it up to him, he would have slit Dennis’s throat on day two, to put an end to Dennis’s toadying and whining. But he couldn’t: James himself had encouraged Tommy to take a new plaything, so he’d stop spending so much time with Larry. And since Tommy seemed to enjoy toying with Dennis in bed, James had held off on killing him. Now, James felt, if someone was going to solve this problem, he’d have to do it himself. “We’ll make it look good. You,” he said, pointing to Tommy, “are going to lay low until it’s done, then you can show up and make him look like the hero. If you need to call someone, only call me. As for you,” he murmured, looking at Larry, “get him as riled up as you have to. If you need help, you only come to me. Now, didn’t you once tell me you had-“

  
“What are you up to now?” Tommy asked with chagrin.  
“We’re not going to kill him,” James said with a little half-smile. “We’re just going to scare him.”

* * *

  
Later, James left in a huff ‘to think’ and Tommy snuck into Larry’s room. “You didn’t have to, Doll, ” he said, kissing Larry softly. He got on the bed beside Larry and they clung to one another, warm and affectionate, arms wrapped tightly.  
“I wanted to, for you,” Larry said. “And Todd, this’ll help him too.”  
“James doesn’t give you enough credit,” Tommy whispered. “He always-“  
“I don’t?” They hadn’t even heard James come in. If Tommy had been mortal, all the color would have drained from his face. “Get one of your own to warm your bed,” he told Tommy. Without a word, the younger vampire rose and made his way to Dennis’s room.  
“I’m sorry.” His naissant’s dark eyes were shining and apologetic. Striding over, James traced his fingertips over the prominent cupid’s bow of his servant’s mouth, then down to the man’s lower lip. “I don’t even need to say it, do I?”  
“Say what?” his servant asked, feigning innocence.  
“This is not like you and Todd, and it never has been.” James sounded like a parent who’d been pushed to the ‘because I said so’ defense. “You think you’re so special, because everyone wants a fucking piece of you. Don’t forget the day you got handed off to me. Dogs get sent to the pound with more dignity than that.” He grabbed his servant and roughly bit into his bare shoulder. The blood would not nourish him, but feeding this way would not cause either one of them to go feral, not unless Larry turned the tables and bit James. The only side effects would be muscle pain, and sluggishness from blood loss.  
“Not too much,” his naissant begged as James dug his teeth into the waiting shoulder.  
“I know damn well how much you can take,” James muttered, and brought his head back down, feeling his ownership in his lover’s body.  
Tommy left the next day with a loving goodbye kiss for Dennis, on the pretense of being called away to his ‘side business’. He and Dennis had once briefly discussed his life as a fence for stolen goods, but Dennis had asked not to be involved. As he was leaving, Tommy promised he would only be gone for a few days to drop some money off with his friends. Two says the bond had left Dennis weak and listless. On day four, Larry, now fully recovered from blood loss, swooped in to give the performance of a lifetime. “Don’t get up. Listen, James got a call from Tommy. He’s very upset, so I thought I should tell you the news.”  
“Oh my god, is Tommy okay?” Dennis asked, sitting up on the couch.  
“He’s in bad shape. He’s told you about his friends, right? The ones he…gets stuff for, for them to sell?” Larry had done a little acting in high school and college, and had frequently been told to ‘tone it down.’ He hoped he had learned something from those remarks.  
Dennis looked ready to cry out. “Oh my god, I knew he shouldn’t have been doing anything like that! Is he hurt?”  
“They turned on him,” Larry said quickly. “They think he’s cheating them out of money, so they took his blood. Enough to keep him with them. Now they’re holding out for a cut of our blood, or they’re going to take what’s left of his, as payment.” Larry paused. Then, trying to wring every last ounce of drama out of the moment, he added: “They’re werewolves, did he tell you?”  
Dennis’s mouth dropped open slightly. “Oh my god, I thought they were….like us.”  
“Doesn’t matter. They still want blood,” Larry said.  
“What do I have to do?” he whispered.  
“James went on ahead. He’s going to negotiate with them, and Todd will stay here and guard the house. But he wanted me to come up with enough payment to do an exchange, and I thought you could help.” He noticed how reluctant Dennis seemed and said: “Tommy always said how much you looked out for him.”  
Dennis cried softly, covering his face, then looked back to his fellow naissant and nodded. “Just show me what to do.”  
Soon, Larry and Dennis were at the trunk of James’s car. James had apparently gone ahead by way of the city bus, leaving his naissant to transport the ‘payment,’ which Larry was now showing off. There were several gallon buckets of blood in the trunk. “I think we need one more,” Larry was saying. He looked at Dennis and for a moment, he actually dropped the act. “You really don’t look so good...”  
Dennis wasn’t feeling so good, in fact. All this time, his skin had burned at the memory of Tommy stroking him or kissing him, and his head was in a hungover fog. Without the feelings he and Tommy shared, the world felt gray and faded. Late at night, Dennis had tried to forget his loneliness and find release by his own hand. Even if he thought of August, he couldn’t finish. He then knew he was even further away from August than before, and he’d wept. _They did something to me_ , he realized. _This bond…it’s weakening me. How long can I go on like this, will it kill me?_  
Dennis was about to ask Larry this very question when someone scrambled out of the open passenger side door: a fluffy gray cat. Larry scooped the little animal up in his arms and tickled its belly.  
“This is a big job, but it won’t be so bad,” Larry told Dennis. His encouragement seemed real. But weren’t they rivals? Dennis thought. Did this man see him as a threat, for Tommy’s affections? Speculating on all these alliances was making his head spin.  
“Why are you helping me?” Dennis asked.  
“Because it’s obvious you didn’t know what you were getting into when you signed up for this. You and I are a lot alike, and you know it. We both came here to get away from something, we both had a hard time adjusting to this. We’d both do this for Tommy. But he chose you, not me.” He fixed Dennis with his dark eyes, and Dennis felt guilt well up in him like a wave of nausea. The last part was certainly true, but all of what Larry said did make sense, given what they knew about each other.  
“I’ll…try,” Dennis said. “I owe him that much.”  
“One thing- last time you tried, did you get the urge?”  
“To kill?” Dennis whispered.  
“No, to drink the blood yourself instead of saving it for Tommy.” Dennis shook his head, and Larry nodded. “Good, you can fight it. Not everyone can, present company included.” He petted the cat’s back in long, affectionate strokes, and the cat purred in contentment.  
Briefly coming back to his senses, Dennis asked: “Larry, why are you holding a cat…you’re not taking that for blood?”  
Larry lifted the chubby cat up, as if it were a baby, and held it before him. He spoke to it conversationally, not in baby talk. 'Oh, no. We're friends- isn't that right, Mr. Percy?"  
"Mrrrooow," Mr. Percy replied, deadpan as a cat could be. His fat tail lolloped slightly to the right.  
"That's right," Larry said, nodding gravely to the little creature. "You don't have a family anymore, because whatever's left of them is sitting in the trunk of this car. So I'm your family now. Who's a good kitty?" Larry cooed. He cradled Mr. Percy and began to rub the cat’s tummy. “I’ll drive,” he said, his eyes darting back briefly to Dennis.  
Larry took the wheel and they headed off, weaving through the back roads. _You never know who or what might jump out at you on a night like this,_ Dennis thought. _Guess I’d be the one jumping out now._  
“You sit with your cousin Dennis,” Larry said, sitting and depositing the cat onto Dennis’s lap. Mr. Percy squirmed at being so close to another stranger, then began digging in with his claws. It was like needles jabbing at Dennis’s thighs. The pain made him wince- Dennis didn't dislike cats, but this one obviously didn’t care for him.  
“Well you got lucky, your first victim came to you.” Dennis muttered. He fiddled with the radio, finding nothing but white noise. The cat hissed, trying to get some semblance of comfort.  
“He fell into my lap, but things went downhill from there, if you remember,” he said, trying to meet Dennis’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “We can’t pick and choose. Especially not now, when Tommy’s life is on the line.”  
“You’re right,” Dennis said, nodding and looking around a little too quickly to seem natural. “But I don’t want to go after people who would be missed.”  
“You’re as picky as a 7-year-old, I swear,” Larry said, sighing. “You have to think of everybody as part of nature, even yourself. It’s inevitable, like Todd said about his girlfriend’s dog. I’ve been around, but I still believe there’s some things you can’t fight- not necessarily like destiny, but nature. If dinosaurs were still around,” Larry went on, jumping to this topic as a child might, “You can bet they’d be eating us. Like Mr. Percy here, he killed a mole on his way back.”  
None of this half-baked philosophy seemed to be registering with Dennis, who arrived back where he always did: “Tommy always told me I’d have to.”  
“You need to do this for him, and it’s gotta be soon. So forget about waiting for a cute girl with a terminal disease- you know, the kind in stupid movies who looks hot even when she’s dying,” he added wryly. “Now listen, I have an idea…”  
__________________________________________________________________________________________


	15. In for the Kill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dennis takes his first life. But his troubles within the 'family' are just beginning.

Dennis waited in the dark living room, looking into the silent kitchen and down the hall. He could almost hear the blood pounding in his ears as he kept his eyes on the basement door. There was a low rumble under his feet, the sound of the washing machine running - the owner of the house was down there taking care of things, with no idea there was a strange man upstairs with a weapon in his hand. Dennis’s first kill was going to be in a cottage-like home in a tidy little suburb, the kind of place where things like this just didn’t happen.  
But he knew better now- stories like that always had cracks in them, and murder could happen anywhere.  
Lawrence had assured him that the woman Dennis was dispatching, Carolyn, had no family- her husband had left her alone in the little house. Larry had been there to ‘ease her loneliness’ in between her shifts at the local diner.  
As the naissant waited for her to come up the stairs, he looked behind him and saw the unlocked door to the garage, where he’d slipped in. His partner had told him (from Larry’s previous trysts with Carolyn) about the faulty garage door and where the spare key was hidden. Now Dennis was in the living room, a place so innocent, so banal, that he felt something or someone should be here to stop him. But it looked as if it all he’d have to do was wait, and the prey would be his.  
 _Why did you agree to this? What has Tommy done for you lately?_ The voice lurked at the back of his mind. He tried to shut it out: T _ommy wouldn’t bind me if he didn’t care for me; I should want his safety the way he wants mine. He could be dying._  
Carolyn walked into the kitchen, padding in socks without shoes. Dennis looked beside him and noted the potted plant standing there. Tightly, he clenched the ice pick in his hand. Now he had to lure her over to him- he and Lawrence had talked it over, and it would be best to do it as discussed. Extending his leg, he knocked the plant over and it hit the floor with a thud. She took the bait, and he heard her pad over, muttering:

‘What the-?”

  
Dennis’s eyes nervously searched the room and saw the picture in the middle of the living room wall. He’d missed it before- from where he stood, the only light came from a streetlamp further down the block and a little came from under the door to the basement. The photograph was the largest in the room and depicted a girl about six years old, standing next to a Christmas tree. It had been taken in that very living room. Either her father had taken her away with him, or else….and then Dennis saw something sticking out from under the couch. It was a little stuffed hippopotamus, with a bright purple coat and button eyes. Yes, he’d been lied to. Even if he couldn’t hear them and they were asleep, there was a child in this house. But it was too late for him to stop this now. The woman entered the room, saw him, and shouted: “Ah-!”

  
He knocked her to the ground and the wind rushed out of her cry. In that moment, Dennis no longer knew himself- he’d never been one to get in any kind of fight. Even verbally threatening a woman was far beyond anything he’d ever thought of.  
Was there any ‘self' left of Tommy, the person who’d made him do this? Or had Tommy spent so many years luring people in for sex, blood or money that he was nothing but a void that had to be filled? This all ran through Dennis’s mind in the moment it took his victim to fall to the ground. Then he saw her feel the pain and recover, and his arms rushed forward the second she opened her mouth to scream. He grabbed her by the neck and the waves of her blonde hair swung back. A shriek lay unborn on her lips. “Don’t!” he hissed, watching her brown eyes widen in fear.

  
While Dennis waited downstairs, a very different scenario was playing out upstairs. Larry, knowing where the little girl’s bedroom was, had cradled Mr. Percy against his shoulder and climbed the tree next to the house. The child was fast asleep, and so Larry leaned over and put Mr. Percy on her windowsill, in the window box. He knocked on the glass, then hid himself among the branches to the little girl wouldn’t see him. Soon she was up and gasping in surprise. He smiled- she did look a lot like her mother, just with pigtails. “Oh, poor kitty!” she said. “How’d you get up there? Did you climb the tree?” Mr. Percy meowed, looking back at his master in the branches.  
Right on cue, Larry stuck his head out and said: “You found my cat!” The little girl gasped but Larry shushed her: “You’ll scare him,” he said, pointing to the cat.  
Guiltily, she began petting Mr. Percy, but asked in a shaky voice: “Mister? Why are you outside my room, up in a tree?”  
“My cat ran away,” Larry said, as if this should have been obvious.  
“But this is weird,” she said. The girl continued cuddling and petting the cat, as if to defend it. “You’re a stranger. I’m gonna go-“  
‘You’re dreaming,” Larry said coolly. “You have weird dreams all the time, don’t you? I bet they’re a lot like this.”  
A look of understanding flickered over her face. “Yeah…” But common sense won out and she looked over her shoulder. “Mommy?” she called.  
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that. You hear that downstairs, bumping?” She nodded. “It’s probably the monster in your basement,” Larry said. “You’re afraid to go down there since your dad left, aren’t you, Kimberly? You know how upset that makes your mother.”  
Her hands shrank away from the cat, as if it had bitten her. “How do you know all that?”  
“It’s your dream. I know everything about you. ” He lowered his voice and inched closer to her, speaking conspiratorially. “Tell you what. I’m a monster hunter. If you promise to stay here until the sun comes up, and lock your door behind me, I’ll go kill the monster for you.” He gave her a wink.  
“But this is a dream….” She cocked her head, shaking it a little.  
“Then we’ll just let the monster come upstairs, won’t we? To your room. Your mom’s room. You have heard it when you‘re awake, hmm?” Then the paused and drove the last nail in: “It’s not like your daddy is going to come back and kill it.”  
“Can the kitty stay with me, so I’m not by myself?” Kimberly asked, her little voice cracking.  
“He might be there when you get up,” Larry said gently.  
Kimberly shuddered as she looked around the room, and heard another thump beneath her feet. “Ok, but you’re not allowed to stay in my room, or go to my mom’s room. You can only come in if you promise to go down and kill it right away!”  
_____________________________________________________________________________________

  
Even if Dennis wasn’t sure about Tommy, he knew all too well how everyone else felt about him- the only people he’d had left, after drifting apart from his family once he met August, and from his friends after August’s death. James saw him as a nuisance, Todd and Larry as something of a project. If Tommy needed saving, there should have been a better way to save him. Most of all, Dennis knew there should have a better life than this, one he and August would have started together. He hated the mess he'd gotten into and his own behavior. The anger grew and took on a life of its own, urging him to fight back at anyone, with anything. Dennis reached behind him with his free hand and raised the ice pick. If he had paused to speak, he might have had time to reconsider, but everything he'd repressed came out. He held the pick up high- not triumphantly, but wildly, as if trying to ward off an enemy. She tried to scream again, but he rushed the pick forward into her chest. Carolyn groaned only for a few moments, then stopped. He looked at her lifeless body. There was a little blood around where he’d stuck the pick, a little around her mouth….he hoped no more was lost and it would be enough. She certainly hadn’t been expecting that, not from the likes of him. But after a moment, he saw the body for what it truly was. Now he really was a killer, with nothing to separate him from the rest of the group. Something inside himself, down at the very center of his being, had changed and grown darker.

  
More footsteps behind him. He was caught, he must be- but no, it was just Larry, coming down the stairs with the cat in his arms.  
“The little girl,” Dennis whispered. “You didn’t-“  
“Never,” Larry said. He knelt down and let the cat go, to explore the house. “I made sure she was locked in her room- James would kill us both if he found out we got a kid mixed up in this. But now she won’t see anything until the cops show up, and we’ll get rid of the evidence. So, you still went through with it?”  
Dennis stood aside and Larry went over to the slumped body. After looking it over, he smiled and cupped Dennis's face in his hands, as if his companion were a frightened young woman. “You did it. He’s going to be fine. Are you still afraid?”  
“Relieved,” Dennis gasped.  
Larry nodded. “Just how I felt. Next time, you’ll have no trouble.”  
“Will it be…enough, now? For him- that’s how much they wanted?”  
“It’s perfect. Now let's put on some gloves and clean up. I put a chair under the kid’s door handle to be on the safe side. We can take it away when we leave.” He directed the other naissant in the proper draining of a body, making sure to give the corpse a wide berth so he wouldn’t be tempted to drink the blood- the claiming of Mr. Percy’s family had taken a lot out of him and the willpower Larry had built up was starting to fade. While Dennis carried the blood to the trunk of the car, Larry carefully wrapped the body in newspapers and set it beside them. The ocean would be her final resting place when they got home.  
Larry helped Dennis into the car and drove the three of them home. After his first kill, Dennis slept most of the way home, more steadily than he had in some time. It was like a pressure in his body had been released. Mr. Percy sat on his lap, an oddly comforting presence even as he continued to dig in with his claws. Larry dropped Dennis off at home, saying he was going to give James the goods and hopefully they would return with Tommy. “You’ve been through enough,” Larry said. “Get some rest til Mr. Percy and I get back. Todd will look out for you.” Todd was very welcoming and assured Dennis that he would be safe.

“What about the little girl?”

His companion laughed. “Come off it. She tells the cops about me, what’s she gonna say? 'A weird man with a cat appeared outside and told me I was dreaming?' Who’d ever believe that? Now get inside.”

* * *

  
“You’re lucky no one notices the money you throw around, except me,” James said, right after Larry had dropped off the blood. “You could’ve picked a cheaper hotel. The people here probably think you’re a drug lord.”  
“You’re just saying that because we need a fix,” Tommy sighed. He was reclining on the bed, with the glow of the tv flickering against his long fair hair and white hotel bathrobe. “Pass me the bag; it’ll be easier to hide it from Dennis if we drink some now. Where’s Larry?”  
“Chasing tail, like every other guy in town. Don’t waste your energy on him.”  
“He did do it, all for me,” Tommy said softly, with a note of admiration. “Dennis, I mean. I think he really is in love with me. We could get him to do anything now…”  
James sat next to him on the bed and passed him the bag of blood. He ran a covetous hand into Tommy’s bathrobe and down his bare chest. They say you never forget your first, and James never had- the first person he felt was worthy to kill for him, to become the ideal lover he’d created. “Since we’re laying low, I got you something,” he purred. He took out a white paper bag and held it out to his lover.  
Tommy unwrapped the little foil package inside to reveal white rose petals, and another familiar scent: they had been soaked in ether. He smiled knowingly: “You remembered.” Decades ago, he and his Sire used to kill hours at a time by chewing the ether-drenched petals and lying back in the drunken haze that followed. It was a habit they had picked up in Europe.  
James moved the package to his lap. “Lie back and open your mouth,” he coaxed. Tommy reclined on the pillows- his robe had fallen open. “Thank you,” he said, running a hand along James’s knee. Then he gently opened his mouth and James fed the rose petals to him, placing two on his tongue.  
“I miss tasting roses when I kiss you,” James whispered.  
Miles away, Dennis was crying himself to sleep.

* * *

  
The car rolled up around 10 pm and parked. Inside, Todd and Dennis heard the noise and waited for the others to enter- going out all at once would attract too much attention. They bolted up when they heard the lobby door shut, and ran towards the front of the house. There, on James’s arm and looking a little wan, was Tommy. Dennis ran to him, and had to stop himself from throwing his arms around his lover and seizing him in a kiss. Larry followed behind, and thanks to Todd, he ended up covered in kisses.  
“You saved me,” Tommy whispered to Dennis. There was a little tremble in his voice, and his naissant fell for him all over again. This was the sweet boy he’d fallen in love with, not the cold, distant beauty who’d let James threaten Dennis. “I can’t ever thank you enough.” He held his arms out to Dennis, who took shelter and sobbed as he hugged the vampire he was bonded to. "I feel how you wanted that," Tommy said.  
"I keep feeling sick when I'm far away from you," Dennis rasped. "Is this the bond? This is what it does to you?"  
The vampire nodded slowly, then said: “Can I stay with you tonight? It’s not good for either one of us to be alone.” Dennis put his arm around Tommy’s shoulders and led him back to the small dressing room.  
“Were you in a lot of pain?” Dennis asked in a tiny voice. “I felt sick but I don’t think that was you, I couldn’t sense you. Could you feel me, at all?”  
“It only works with sex,” Tommy said, as if to console him.  
“I would have taken some of your pain, if I could.”  
Tommy looked at him strangely, as if he hadn’t understood the words. “I’d never ask you to.”  
After gentle kisses and caresses, Dennis fell asleep once again- the bond had him fast in the addict’s grip, and now he had another hit to calm his body. He woke up when something warm and soft settled on his chest.  
“Tommy?” he murmured. Blinking, he looked into the round gray face of Mr. Percy, who meowed loudly. Dennis just sighed- he couldn’t be upset or disappointed with an innocent animal, even after all the animal lives he’d taken. “Are you hungry?” he said, moving the cat off him and sitting up. He rose from the bed, put on his pajama pants, and carefully gathered the cat into his arms. He almost got scratched, but was starting to grow fond of Mr. Percy. There might be some milk in the fridge he could give the cat, Dennis thought. He began walking towards the green room, but Mr. Percy jumped out of his arms and ran to the door to James’s room, which was slightly ajar. Dennis was horrified. He couldn’t go in there, but he didn’t want James to hurt the cat. Mr. Percy must have smelled or sensed Larry would be in there. Todd, the last person he expected, left the room, and lovingly placed the cat on the ground. Then he looked up, his mouth open in surprise as he saw Dennis.  
“You’re awake,” Todd said.  
“Ask him to come in.” It was Tommy who had spoken. Then his voice came again: “Let him decide. Come in, Dennis.”  
“I’ll feed the cat,” Todd said quickly, slipping past Dennis and down the hall. He left as if he knew a bomb was about to go off, and Mr. Percy padded after him. Now Dennis was almost too intimidated to enter. But something inside him asked: _After all you’ve been through, how bad could it be?_ He pushed the door open and entered. James’s room was easily the largest bedroom, with dark wood furnishings and another full-length mirror.  
Larry was lying on the bed, on his back with his legs raised. James knelt between his lover’s legs and held Larry by the ankles, driving his sex harder and harder with each thrust. He had broken quite a sweat but was grinning, head held high in victory.  
Tommy was watching while pleasuring himself. His face shone with hunger and amusement in equal measure. Come to think of it, Dennis thought suddenly, where had Todd fit in? And there it was, in the corner of the room- someone had set up an old movie camera, with the lens open. Todd had been filming everything that was happening.  
When Tommy noticed Dennis, his expression did not change. Had he…planned this? And because Tommy was looking at him all the while, Dennis was now beginning to feel uncomfortably aroused. _The bond…_ he thought. _As long as we’re together, and it’s sex….I’ll feel everything he does._  
“I didn’t think we’d get lucky enough to have you join us,” Tommy said. He flirted shamelessly, even as he fucked his own fist to the sight of two other men. He spread his legs even further and licked his lips, displaying himself to a horrified Dennis. “Larry’s had about all he can take, y’know.”  
“I got up to feed the cat,” Dennis said. He was unsure where to look or how to behave, but unable to tear his eyes from any of this. His hands covered his crotch, but it was no use. Everyone could see the effect the bond was having on him, and they were staring.  
“Feed the cat,” James laughed, glancing over his shoulder. “Did you fucking hear him?” He turned back and softly patted Larry’s thigh as he finished plowing into him and drew away. “C’mon, you can get me off later.”  
“Ohhhh,” James’s naissant moaned. Tommy beckoned Dennis to come lay on the bed. As he crept forward- he could barely stand- Dennis watched Larry rise and fold himself into James’s embrace.  
“Open him up. I want to see what he can do,” James said tauntingly, looking from Dennis to Tommy. “Show me what’s so special about him.”  
Smiling gently, Tommy patted the bed. Dennis’s arousal told him had to give in, to this craving for contact…he couldn’t be left alone again, after the agony he had experienced so recently. He sat down on the bed and allowed Tommy to take him in his arms. The vampire drew closer to him and began playfully blowing in Dennis’s ear, then moved to kissing his face. He held him fast with one arm around the neck, enough to keep him close, but not to hurt him. The vampire’s other hand worked its way into Dennis’s pajama pants, coaxing him with his touch. “Are you gonna be good for me?” Tommy whispered, his voice impossibly sweet and soft.  
“Yes,” Dennis said. There he sat, an obedient pet, while Tommy had his way with him. It was like putting his hand in a fire- Dennis let his need flare up and swallow him whole. It even managed to block out the leering smiles that surrounded him.


	16. Getting Closer: Return of Plot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to our vampire hunters.

Miranda, Chuck and John knew they had to get their target alone, before he came back to the home base and could directly draw out the two vampires. They decided to cut him off, and had John follow him out of the hospital for about a quarter-mile. 

Miranda wanted to kill the naissant and draw the two vampires out by sending them a photo of his body. This would also eliminate someone who would otherwise be targeting them. John, kept insisting that they wait and see ‘what he was like, like if he’s a real threat.’ Chuck offered the valuable point that a live bargaining chip was worth much more than a dead one, even if eventually gathering all the vampires and their servants in one place was a huge risk.

“I hope you’re prepared to aim for the heart, or hack off some heads if the time comes,” she said dourly. “Remember? Even if it’s a fatal cut, if you don’t get the heart or the head….”

“They can still be revived with blood after bleeding out,” Chuck recited. “I mean, I’ve never done it, but I know we can’t just slow them down. “

John added: “Wouldn’t it always be easier to just put a hole in the heart right away? That destroys it completely, right?”

“Yes, but only if you’re not fighting a feral vampire. ” The two brothers looked blank, and Miranda sighed. She looked more frustrated with herself than anyone. “Jesus, there wasn’t nearly enough time to give you two a quick course. I keep forgetting things. Listen carefully, just in case- if a vampire goes feral, they’re a lot stronger, more unpredictable, and resilient, but they lose their minds. It’s a harsh tradeoff. At that point, it will take a bullet or impalement longer to kill them, or even slow them down. And trust me, waiting around isn’t practical. The _only_ thing that will kill a feral vampire instantly is cutting off its head. It also brings them back to their original form. But I think we’re getting closer- is that him up ahead? John, get out.” Chuck abruptly pulled up to the curb and John stumbled out of the car.

The man had been purposefully taking back roads, and John knew he couldn’t wait too long to strike or the vampires’ ally would grow suspicious. When John was sure they were quite alone, he ran up to the man and cried out.

“Give me your backpack,” John said, trying to sound like the cop who’d caught him joyriding in his dad’s car at age 15. John was holding out the gun as if he were afraid it would explode, and was reluctant to even load it until Chuck convinced him to put in a few blanks, _just in case_ there was no other solution. The two brothers hoped it would be enough to scare the naissant, at least. 

"I knew someone was following me," the dark-haired man said with an uncanny grin. "Why don't you come get it, if you've got a gun?" 

"Do you see this?” John said, shaking the gun at him. "Give me the pack." He was realizing that although a cop harshly saying, ‘step out of the car, young man’ was enough to scare _him_ shitless, this guy was going to be harder to frighten.

"You’re not gonna hurt me,” the man laughed.

"I might,” Chuck said. He had snuck up behind the man and was using his left hand to hold a knife to the back of his neck. “I know what you are,” Chuck said. He then grabbed the man and moved the knife right up against the man’s throat, adding: “And this’ll still kill you, same as anyone else.”

Sighing in relief, John held up his gun with a steadier hand. 

"Okay, take the bag!" the man said. John ran up and slid the backpack off him, while Chuck kept the edge of the blade at the man's throat. 

“Tell me your name, or this finds its way inside you.”

“Larry,” he blurted. He looked ashamed, so Chuck had a feeling this was probably his real name.

“Who are you taking orders from?” Chuck asked, moving directly in front of him. The man now looked determined not to say anything further, so Chuck roughly slapped his face. “Answer me, asshole. We know you've got a killer behind you and you're squatting in that old building." 

"You’ve got no proof,” the man laughed. “And if you kill me, that won’t do you any good!”

"The police might be willing to take bribes, but I bet we can find a way to tie you to those killings," Chuck said. He was unsure if the man was mentally unbalanced or laughing out of fear. His ruined hand grabbed the collar on his prisoner’s expensive-looking black shirt. “Where’s the guy you’re working for, the one who took my hand?”

“You got crippled, and you still think you can threaten us?" Larry sneered. 

Chuck took the knife and slashed the naissant's cheek. The man doubled over, screaming in pain as red rushed over his white face. "You seem to be doing a lot worse than me," Chuck whispered.

“No matter what you do to me, they’ll find you,” Larry growled as John began binding his wrists. John worked as an electrician, and had brought some extra plastic ties with him, the kind used to bind electric cables.*

He knew these would hold anyone, even if their victim, as per Miranda’s explanation, had slightly better endurance than most people. 

“Good to know,” Chuck said, bringing the knife just a little closer. “Make it tight around his ankles, bro.”

Larry tried to scream for help, but Chuck grabbed his face, gripping the jaw under the chin and digging upwards with his fingers, forcing his mouth to shut. “Uh-uh. Why did you go this way in the first place? You think anyone’s gonna give a shit about you over here? John, get his wrists and give me the tape when you’re done- I’ll do his mouth.”

Larry whimpered in pain but still tried to kick John’s hands away. He got a punch to the stomach from John for his trouble, which disabled him enough for to Chuck to hold him in place so John could finish tying his ankles. Miranda staggered out of the car, dark glasses in place. Before her, like a sacred object, she held a Polaroid OneStep instant camera.**

“Well,” she said, “I’m not feeling too good, so we need to make this quick. You two still want to get creative, or do we get practical?”

“What are you going to do?” their victim asked, still trying to be flippant, even as the zip ties tightened around his wrists . “Hold me for ransom?”

“There’s an idea,” Miranda said wryly. “Make them pay…I like the sound of that. Like you said, Chuck, he would be worth more alive.” She held up the camera.

“Wha- no,” Larry said quickly, “I was joking again! Joking! Look, those deals never work out, I was on one recently. We can figure something-“

“Smile,” Chuck said. He slapped the duct tape on Larry’s mouth. Then he yanked their victim’s hair by the roots to get him to raise his head, so the picture would show him cut and bloodied. Miranda clicked the camera and a metallic whirr sounded as the picture printed out. She shook the little plastic photo as John and Chuck dumped their ‘bait’ into the back seat. She took out a thick black marker***and wrote on a little card, paperclipped to the photo:

“The four of you are going to go hungry without him. If you want to see him again, come to the abandoned house at 612 North Avenue before dawn. – A Friend.”

She hurried back into the car with Chuck and got into the passenger seat. John was buckling Larry into the back seat and sitting beside him to make sure he did not escape. “I wrote it out,” Miranda said. “John, you think you can still get out and leave the note for them?”

“He’s like a fish on a hook,” John grunted. It was true- Larry was not being kidnapped without a fight, attempting to break his bonds as he wiggled in place. “You better do it, Chuck.”

Chuck nodded. He slowly prepared himself for the task, fighting the memories that still crowded his mind: the feeling of his fingers snapping off, teeth sinking in; and the sight of that wide-eyed face ripping out a man’s throat. He had tried to forget the smell of human blood, but he had just drawn some himself. He took them on a circuitous route through the town and parked a block away from the old theater. Miranda handed him a roll of duct tape. “Tape it to the door,” she said. “I’ll keep a lookout here.” She looked warily behind her at John, who was attempting to pin Larry down in his seat. Chuck tore off two small strips of tape and stuck them to the photo and the card. _All I have to do,_ he told himself, _is stick it to the door and walk away. That’s nothing. Right?_

Chuck walked up the cracked concrete walkway to the theater. Although it was warm, today was another dreary day. The sun would be setting within the next 90 minutes. The strident cries of the seagulls were the only hint that there might be something beyond those masses of gray-white clouds, or the eerie quiet that pervaded this old part of town. He was suddenly aware of how far the walkway was from the door and how much open space there was on either side of him. It would be so easy, so quick, for someone to run up and seize him by the neck. When he got to the door, he saw that the chain on the front doors only looked secure- he could see the broken end tucked between the handles. Was this so squatters and homeless people would be encouraged to just undo the chain and walk right in? Like a mousetrap? A dizzy, falling feeling washed over Chuck as the color drained from his face. He stuck the photo on the door, and he could hear a pounding. He didn’t know if it was from his heart or only in his head, but it told him to run like hell. _No_ , he told the voice. _If I go out, I go out with honor_. _They have to know I’m here to stop them_. He walked back to the car, with great effort, at exactly the same pace he’d used before. 

Miranda was now sitting in the backseat and examining Larry. She was looking at him as if he were an animal who’d just rolled in its own shit. "I smell all that blood on your hands. You belong to James.” She took the tape off. “Did he tell you about me?”

Larry winced at the pain of having the tape ripped off, then asked: “You turned him? I knew I could sense something on you.”

"He always wanted someone to obey him,” Miranda whispered. “I guess he trained you well, or you wouldn't reek the way you do." 

James smelled like ashes, and so did this woman. Larry thought that must be what she’d recognized on his own body. "Do I smell that bad? How do I smell?" 

"Like corpses," she said flatly. 

"Fair enough..." he replied. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *These are what we would now call ‘zip ties’ and were invented in 1958.
> 
> **This is a real instant camera that was on the market in 1977. 
> 
> ***Sharpie markers were invented in 1964.


	17. Art Imitates Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The cracks begin to show.

At Tommy's urging to ‘get out of the house, earn some money and stop moping,’ Dennis had been in town, answering classified ads. He was the first to get home that day and the first to notice the photo on the door, which he took for an ad or religious tract. He read the back, which was facing outward, first, then hurriedly turned it around and saw the photo with Larry's bloodied face. Once again he gave into his first instinct, which was to run and find Tommy. His lover was fast asleep in his plush bed and Dennis banged on the door to wake. Tommy, dressed only in boxer shorts, threw the door open and glared at his naissant. "What the hell? What is it?”

"I'm...so sorry," Dennis said. He had never seen Tommy so annoyed with him, and was trying not to hyperventilate or show any fear. That would only make Tommy more upset. "It just couldn't wait; I found this. I think your friends are back." Tommy’s jaw dropped and he snatched the photo from Dennis. The vampire stared at the words written there, and then slowly turned away from the door. 

'This is bad," Tommy said, his voice sounding weak and far away. Not like when he and Dennis had first met, in the way that made him want to take Tommy in his arms and kiss him better. No, he sounded unsure of his own safety. "Go in your room and stay out of sight. I'm gonna have to tell James this myself." 

"But...I mean, is there anything I can do?" Dennis asked. "If it’s like last time, I can-“

"This has nothing to do with you, or last time!" Tommy said in exasperation. "You think you're ready to be in a situation like this? You're like a little kid compared to us, or even Todd. You gotta know when to quit." Dennis shrank back, grateful Tommy wouldn't see him trying not to cry. He almost wished Tommy had said something like 'I hate you'; then Dennis wouldn't have to wonder if Tommy actually cared for him at all. Most of all, Dennis was trying not to think about what a mistake he'd made in giving himself over to this man. Tommy brushed past him, now dressed in jeans and a shirt he had not bothered to button. "I'm sorry," Tommy said, halting and turning back. "I was rough on you. I am worried about Larry." 

“It’s not your friends?” Dennis said softly. Tommy pushed past him to retrieve the photo of Larry from his bedroom, and slipped it into the pocket of his jeans as he exited toward James’s room. 

"Trust me, they don’t want him. This is someone who’s gonna come after all of us. Just...go to your room and stay there. If I need your help, I'll ask for it." He knocked at James's door, then darted back to see if Dennis was leaving. The naissant hurried down the hall towards his own room until he was out of sight. With a thud, he slammed the door shut. Tommy, evidently satisfied with this, knocked at James's door again and added in a choked voice: "It's me. Larry's in trouble." 

"Tell me everything," Dennis heard James say. Dennis peeked back out and saw James’s arm, seizing Tommy by his fine-boned wrist and dragging him into the bedroom. The door slammed shut.

Very carefully, Dennis stole out of his room and began listening at James's door. Just when he thought he couldn’t go any lower in this new world, here he was, eavesdropping like a guilty kid. He halted and strained his ear to hear the two vampires, knowing they would hear if he pressed himself against the wood. 

“I fucking said, _you never let them live!”_ he heard James scream. “You have one job- make them loyal, or leave no witnesses! I can’t…how could you do something so fucking stupid? How could you have thrown away everything I did for you?” He had none of the eerie calm he had before.

“The police showed up,” Tommy said, his voice growing shrill. “I couldn’t let them see me, could I? Then we'd really be lost.” 

"Goddamnit!" James cried. He let out a choked gasp. "You’re right, you’re right. I know it's her, anyway, from the handwriting. I swear I can feel her; that's who these guys are working with." 

"You mean Nightingale?" 

"My Miranda," he said, voice steely. Tommy and Dennis could not see one another, but at that moment, both men wore identical expressions. They had not stopped to consider that the woman who’d sired James had another name, a whole other life with this man before their own had started. “Acts like she’s a fucking saint, getting rid of killers. But…no, we can fix this," James said drawing breath and sounding more confident. "I need to know you're going to back me up." 

"I always do," Tommy said - then he let out a little whimper. Dennis couldn't see what James was doing to him or if it was in pleasure or pain. 

"Then act like it. When we get Larry back, and we will, we need him to fight-not run off somewhere with you." 

“I won’t,” Tommy said, but he didn’t cringe or cry. He seemed to be bracing himself against a blow.

"Damn right. You’d better be ready for anything if she brings along some of her friends." 

Dennis was so shaken by this he stole back to his room. He didn't want to hear what Tommy had to say in response, and the prospect of meeting Miranda also worried him. If she only killed killers, she had some goodness in her, but she would see him as an enemy. And if James was intimidated by her, she had to be a serious threat. He heard Todd run down the hall. Of course, Todd was the kind of person they could rely on, Dennis thought. That’s clearly who they wanted him to imitate. Then Todd ran back, to pound on Dennis’s door. “We’re having a meeting and we need you, man. Come on,” Todd said.

Reluctantly, Dennis followed. He hoped Tommy and Todd would back him up if James were angry with him. Everyone had assembled in the green room, with James holding court on the worn couch, Tommy leaning against a counter and Todd in a folding chair. To avoid sitting next to James, Dennis gingerly sat on an old stool, the kind used in libraries to reach books.

“All right, the quick version,” James said. “Someone took Larry and I think I know who. It’s up to us to get him back… but this is much more serious than that temper tantrum that we faced last time. We are up against someone much older, and more powerful.” His eyes darted briefly over to Tommy and then back to the group. “I need to know you’re all with me on this. Everyone is already at risk. We need to know you’re all willing to put your lives on the line.” Dennis wondered if Tommy shouldn’t be leading the meeting or at least co-leading it, since Todd and he himself were technically out of James’s jurisdiction. But he knew keeping quiet meant keeping his life.

“I have an idea,” Todd said. “Now, you’re free to shoot me down on this-“

“Your hunches have saved us more than once,” James said. “Let’s hear it.”

“When you find Larry, turn him,” Todd said. “Three of us at full power is better than two, and if he gets in danger of going feral, he won’t be able to handle it.”

“True enough,” James said quietly. “But I don’t know if he’s ready.”

“He’s had five years,” Tommy said.

“If you’re so worried, turn Todd,” James shot back. The two vampires began arguing about Todd’s role in the group, and Todd struggled to stay silent. He and Dennis exchanged a glance- it was clear both of them felt helpless.

“Todd is the strongest tether we have to the outside world. We can’t lose him-“

“Well, we’re not gonna get very far with that one,” James said, pointing to Dennis.

“You only hold off on turning Larry because you know you won’t be able to keep two full-blooded in line,” Tommy said coldly. “The bond’s like your leash for him.”

“Look at you,” James said, his voice taking on a very intimate brand of cruelty. “You don’t have the balls to tell me that when we’re alone, but when you’ve got two on a leash right here, you don’t care that I made you who you are. You need an audience as much as anyone, _billige hure*_. If you’re so fucking smart, why don’t you strike out on your own?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Tommy said, stalking over to him. “If I left.”

“You’re not gonna do it,” James said. There was an implicit threat in that tone. Everyone was waiting for James to shout, “I fucking dare you,” or “Try it and I’ll kill you.”

“If I did, how would you be worse off? You don’t want me messing with Larry, so go get him yourself. He’s got his job, he can take care of you.” Tommy smiled at James like he had him cornered. “Unless….oh, sweetheart,” he said mockingly. “Are you _afraid_ I’d leave you?”

“Don’t fucking test me again,” James growled. “You know what’ll happen.”

“Not a test. I think I have you figured out,” Tommy said. Now he was showing his careless nature- the kind all people have when they’re young and think their youth will last forever. In his case, it just happened to be true. “If you want me to stay, just tell me.”

To Todd and Dennis’s shock, James did not shout or make threats. Instead he let out a long, slow breath. When he spoke, he laid everything out in a quiet, businesslike way, but it was clear he was not angry. He seemed to be actually pleading with Tommy: “The guy who got away from you? You can have him, and his partner. I won’t take any of it. They’re strong, or she wouldn’t have them helping her. It’ll last you a long time. And if I could give her to you too, I’d do it.” He held Tommy’s gaze, and it was James who blinked first, looking a little uneasy. They both knew that her blood would be impossible for James to drink, and would not nourish Tommy. But the fact that he was willing to give the woman who sired him to his own student, the ultimate rejection of the one who turned him- that registered with Tommy, who was glowing in triumph.

“Thank you,” he said softly. Instantly his manner and voice changed- everything but his eyes was back to being docile and supportive. He lifted James’s hand to his lips and planted an airy kiss on the back. “That’s all I needed to know.”

Dennis felt safer, knowing that James had been brought to heel. So he added: “And I don’t want to be turned, it should be Larry.”

“Sounds like… most of us agree,” Todd said, mustering all his courage.

James shot them a truly murderous look. But still, his voice did not raise. “Fine, but if he fucks up, you wanted this. Remember that. Let’s arm ourselves however we can.”

Todd whispered in Tommy’s ear: “We need firepower.”

“I’ve got you covered,” Tommy said.

“Todd,” Dennis said uneasily, “Can I talk to you a second?”

“Sure,” Todd said. He motioned for Tommy to go on ahead. James had gone back to his room to get something. When Tommy left, Todd turned to Dennis and asked: “What’s on your mind?”

Dennis began in one breath: “I really made him angry just now-”

“He’ll forget it,” Todd assured him.

“Sorry, I’m just trying to trust you here, so bear with me. I don’t think I can go through that…withdrawal again,” Dennis said. He sounded utterly broken. “It might kill me. Why didn’t you feel the same way, when he left? Can you just fight it, the way Larry did with not wanting to drink human blood?”

“He had to train himself not to do, yeah, and it took a long time,” Todd agreed, looking like a teacher dealing with a question they hadn’t counted on. “But the bond you and Tommy have is different from the one we do. You remember how he turned me.”

“Right, it was never about…”

“Sex,” Todd said. “Mine is based on power, he probably thought you wouldn’t need to know that. Your type of bond is always more intense and tied directly into emotions. If he and I actually slept together- especially as much as you do- I’d have all those ups and downs.”

“Why did he pick me and not you?” Dennis asked weakly. “I know it was an accident that he was gone for such a long time, but if he loves me, why would he give me a bond that might hurt me?”

“Maybe he wanted you the way you wanted him,” Todd said. “Like you told me about, when you met him.” His protégé looked stunned, so Todd rose and put a hand on Dennis’s shoulder, saying: “Think about it. He needs my help with something, so we’ll talk later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *German for ‘cheap whore’.


	18. The Tables Have Turned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dennis makes a fateful choice.

Tommy took Todd over to the properties room, where he kept things from people he and James killed together. This was the only ‘stash’ of Tommy’s James was truly aware of. Todd picked up a revolver and hefted it in his hand, getting a feel for the weapon. “I think these’ll get the job done,” he told his sire, ‘but I wish we had time to go get the really good stuff. I can’t believe he still thinks you and Larry are just screwing. How does he think you paid for my new bike last year?” Todd scoffed. He looked through the knives spread out on the table and slipped one into his pocket. “So you’re serious about leaving?” Maybe it was time for them to move on from James and create a new life for themselves, Todd thought. And if Larry were turned, Todd realized with a smile, he could leave James and join them.

“I thought it through,” Tommy said, with a secretive little smile. “When Larry’s turned, he’ll be free to go where he wants, which is right to us. Then we can set ourselves up and trade with whoever we want. From there, we find a good cover story- something where we don’t have to live like hermits all the time.”

Meanwhile, James had directly told Dennis he did not trust him to be any good in a fight, but had another task in mind for him. “You’re going to go ahead of us, pretend to break in, and create a diversion. When they come out swinging, Tommy and Todd are going to drive them back. Between Tommy’s skill and Todd having enough ammo, you should be fine. While they’re occupied, I’m gonna sneak in with this,” he said, holding up a small, amber-colored bottle. This was what he had left Dennis earlier to go find. “And I need to get it to him so I can give him permission. Once he’s turned, the three of them will be offense, you and I are going to be defense. Understand?”

Dennis was about to say, “Are you thinking I might not make it? And whose blood is that?” when Todd walked in and said:

“How’s the turning going to work?”

“We won’t have time to do it properly or to leave anything to chance. As long as I give him permission and he drinks that, it’ll work.” James said curtly. “Got that blood from a gorgeous thing I picked up two days ago. I was saving it, but it’ll be worth it. She was a college kid, it’s strong shit.”

Before they retired to their rooms, Dennis asked Tommy: “You promise you’ll protect me, when we go to get him?”

“Of course I will,” Tommy assured him. “Go to sleep. I’ll come in before sunrise and stay with you.” He smiled gently as if to say, ‘you’d like that, huh?’

Dennis felt the pull of the bond, and though every cell in his body ached as he said it, he muttered, “No, I’m fine.” He had to get a minute alone, for he knew what he had to do. The argument with James pointed to what Dennis had suspected all along: there was no one Tommy wouldn’t turn his back on, not if he thought he could advance himself. That wasn’t August, the person he should have been with right now. And what about when Dennis had caught him in bed with Larry and James, after he had killed in order to save Tommy? Were those the actions of a grateful lover? Was it possible he had been set up? _I can’t let them win,_ Dennis said. _I can’t go on like this, being fixated on him- and if I get lost in the crossfire, I guess that’s the price I pay for surrendering to someone like him._ As the sun started to rise, Dennis stole into the green room and grabbed the bottle where James had left it, in the fridge. Just getting there was a struggle, especially knowing Tommy was so close by and was willing to lie with him. He then made his way over to the room two doors down from his, with the dusty sign on top that read ‘Costume shop.” He opened the bottle of blood, then placed it on a table before him. In seconds, he had found a needle and pricked his finger, releasing a few drops of his own blood- blood Larry would not have permission to drink- into the bottle. Replacing the stopper, he tried not to think too hard about what Larry would become once he drank the tainted blood. If he could stop Tommy and James from killing again, it might be worth damning his own soul. With the weight of eternity on his mind, he replaced the bottle in its spot.


	19. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, our two parallel sets of characters meet.

A noise came from the side of the house- a rock breaking a window that was already cracked. James had told Dennis to create a distraction while Todd fired the gun out front, so the opposition would be drawn in alternate directions.

“I didn’t think they’d have guns,” John whispered as he looked down from the attic window. Before the sting, Chuck had parked his car up the street to make the house still seem abandoned. Then and John had ensconced themselves up in the attic, with their weapons on a rickety old table in front of them: the gun John had been carrying earlier, some bullets, ropes and zip ties, Chuck’s knife, a few other odds and ends and a good, stout hatchet. Miranda had a knife, her packet of razor blades, and some notes she had taken on James and Tommy’s sightings over the years. She left the notes behind and began concealing her weapons on her person.

“They can’t fire too much or the cops might hear, even though this dirt road’s in the middle of nowhere. He’s probably a decoy,” Chuck said. Miranda gave him a sharp look and motioned for him to pick up a weapon, and he took the gun. “They may try to ambush you.” He peered out the window. “He’s got a big gun, but it’s one guy. We’ll handle him.”

“I think I heard another noise,” John said, his voice prodding at Chuck. “In back, maybe. He ran to the side wall and listened- “No. He’s off to the side. I heard a window breaking.”

Chuck said: “Sounds like the second one might not have a gun. You go check it out- remember, you grabbed the hatchet before. You carry that and a knife,” Chuck said, pointing to the things they had amassed on the little table.

Miranda looked out the window and a whispered curse left her lips. “James is hiding. I know he’s here, it feels like my hair is standing on end. I need to be ready for him. I took another look at the incinerator a minute ago and I think we can get it working- let’s hope we make it that far.”

“You do what you gotta do,” Chuck assured her. “John, you go first. Keep the guy on the side busy. Miranda, you think you can handle James by yourself?” She nodded, and Chuck replied “Ok. I’ll call you when I see him.”

John slipped down the stairs and made his way toward the back door. After a 20-second head start, Chuck went out front to confront the gunman. Chuck felt like he’d been preparing all his life for this, even it had only been a few months since he’d lost his hand. The ruined hand was down at his right side while his other one was up, ready to eliminate anyone who threatened his brother or his newfound friend. With a loud creak, he stepped out onto the front porch. The buzz of mosquitos was high in the air and he could swear he still heard a trace of the loud gunshot. The gunman- Todd, although Chuck did not know his name- stood clasping his weapon and biding his time, knowing that if either of them fired too many shots after the first two, the police would show up.

 _Probably hoping he’ll scare me,_ Chuck thought. _Gonna take a lot more than a gun._

“What do you want?” Chuck said in a low voice.

“We want him back, and for you to hand her over to us. The one you’re working for.” “She makes her own decisions. So do I.” Chuck shot the ground at the gunman’s feet. Though the sound was muffled a bit, the man still flinched a little.

“Cut that out. You don’t want the cops here! I know what you’re after,” Todd said.

Chuck smiled wryly. This guy was supposed to be protecting the monster he’d seen? His toughness had to be a front. It reminded him of guys who were proud of their huge trucks, while packing absolutely nothing between their legs. “If you really want her, put that down and use your fists.”

The gunman looked as if he were ready to fight Chuck with his bare hands, but a man emerged from behind and Chuck saw Todd stand at attention. The vampire took his time reaching the porch, striding confidently. His bearing alone told Chuck that his was their leader, James. “Miranda!” Chuck called. She did not arrive. Chuck heard what sounded like a struggle inside, and a cry from his friend. She was already being attacked, and he had to at least try and slow James down while he had a chance. Chuck aimed the gun at the vampire’s heart and grit his teeth. His left hand twitched, trying to keep the gun steady.

“The one who took your hand wants to finish you off,” James smirked. “I just thought I’d see who managed to get away.” Chuck shot at him, but the man curled his arm over his chest and tucked his shoulders, as if wrapping a cloak around himself. Chuck missed two shots despite how close he was. One was too far off to the side, and the other only grazed James’s forearm, as Chuck was still a novice gunman and using his weaker hand. The vampire grimaced, then shrugged it off and kept moving. The vampire hunter went to take aim at the man’s head instead, but by then it was too late- Todd shot him in the right shoulder and the pain made Chuck drop the gun from his left hand. This left James, with his faster reflexes, to grab him. Todd picked up the discarded gun and hurriedly tucked it into his belt. James pinned Chuck against the front wall of the house and whispered: “Always the last ones you’d expect, to have all the ambition. But you tracked us down, you came and faced us. Inside, you’re ready to fight me, even with that bullet in you,” he said with a wicked smile. “I wish I could take you out myself, right now. Your will to live is so strong… I want to _feel_ that strength leaving you.”

Chuck spat in the vampire’s face. “Fuck off,” he said, biting his lips as he got he words out. His shoulder burned with the pain of the bullet, but he reminded himself that the pain of having his hand ripped apart was much worse.

“With aim like that, you’re the one who’s fucked,” James said smoothly. He turned back to Todd and said: “Tie him up, but put a tourniquet on his arm. I don’t want to waste any. Make sure we’re ready to collect on time.”

Todd nodded confidently but said: ‘Are you sure about the tourniquet? I think this guy’s the only one with a gun. We should finish up-“

“I promised Tommy,” James said, his voice still and businesslike. Todd, momentarily jolted, nodded in reply. James pressed further: “You _heard_ me promise him. And we’ll get it to him, even if he’s acting like he’s up his own ass.” Todd nodded, and James barked, “Fix the arm up, then. You’re losing more just standing there. ” With that, he turned and entered the front door. Todd knew that look well, so filled with purpose that everyone who saw it would have to move of the way just to survive. He was heading to the basement, to Larry. 

* * *

In the attic, Miranda had listened and waited for some sign that her former lover was near- that shivery feeling she had mentioned before. Her body tensed further, and the excitement within her grew wilder. She knew that she might not live to see the end of this fight. But she needed, with a strange, frenzied longing, to see James. She no longer loved him, but this was a fitting brand of closure to their relationship- that one of them would have to be struck down. With their bond, James would sense his lover in the basement, and she resolved to cut James off before he could descend the stairs. When the feeling came, she sailed forward, wanting to rush headlong into the fight.

As she left the attic, Miranda felt that other presence grow closer. _He will try to enter from the back door,_ she thought, and ran towards it. She smelled blood, and something familiar- but it was James she had expected to block her way through the door, not Tommy. He carried only one weapon that she could see- his charming smile. Her weapons were still tucked in her dress and stocking. Off to the right side of the back door, and her opponent, was the empty space that had once been a living room. On the other side was the remains of a kitchen. Almost nothing had been left behind in those rooms, but Miranda was no fool. She and the twins had cleared everything from the room that they thought could be used as a weapon, even a broken chair. All the cupboards were empty.

“You,” she whispered. “Where’s James?” So it _was_ James’s blood she had smelled, but on his lover. It was like the death she had sensed on Lawrence, but with an added bitterness- she could sense Tommy was much, much older than her prisoner, and had taken many more lives.

“That’s interesting,” he said, speaking so Miranda had to strain her ears a little to hear him. “You’ve seen me, but I’ve never seen you. ” His eyes glowed and changed as his lips parted to reveal his fangs. Clad all in white, with his long hair framing his face, he looked like a vengeful spirit- something that transcended even the monster he had become. She began to reach into her dress for the razor blades. His supernatural reflexes allowed him to effortlessly grab her arms before she could grab her weapon. “He’ll do anything for me once I hand you over to him.”

“No,” Miranda snarled, tackling him to the ground. She threw all her weight on top, not missing a beat as she leaned into his narrow chest. “Tell me where he is!” she said, her thumbs aimed and ready to dig into his eye sockets. He growled in anger and punched up to hit her in the chest, and the woman fell onto her back.

“You missed him,” Tommy laughed. He leaned over her, as if trying to decide what to do with her. Slowly, he pulled out his ivory-handled knife and held it poised in his fist. _So he is armed,_ she thought.

But he let out a cry as Miranda suddenly popped up and grabbed his forearm, throwing his knife off course before he could get to his feet or steady himself. She kicked at his legs and knocked him off his feet. As Tommy was pushed backward he hit the exposed boards in the outer wall, over by the door. His knife, the weapon he’d kept close to him all these years, flew out of his hand. The wood met his body with a loud thud. He tried to get up but she had drawn out her own knife, cutting his arm and staining his white shirt with blood. He felt no pain but had to retaliate, so he dove for his own weapon and grabbed it. He was steadier than last time and able to strike anyway, leaving a long cut down the outside of her left leg and tearing her stocking. Miranda felt a slight tickle from the cut, and elbowed him in the face with her left arm.

Now he was truly angry, not bothering to make some smart remark- there was blood dripping from his busted nose, making his whole face look livid. His focus was sharp as he charged towards Miranda. He looked as if he would not hesitate to kill her, but she knew that he would not dare to defy James. Tommy would have to hand her over to him, alive, and without spilling too much of her blood. Someone in the distance called her name- Miranda did not respond. Tommy had punched her in the stomach, making her knife fall to the floor.

The world slammed into her as she fell. But she couldn’t give up now. Not before she had even seen James, the one she had vowed to kill. Air left her lungs as she lay back on the floor, feeling her insides lurch and ache. He kicked her knife aside- she heard it clatter on the floor. Her vision blurred as he held his own ivory knife over her, but then frowned and put it into his belt. _My blood, he can’t lose it,_ she realized. _He’ll have to use something else. If he just gives me one more second, I could get up…I could keep going._

She didn’t see Tommy stalk over to the kitchen side of the room, looking for something else he could use as a weapon. The loud noise that followed did reach her- Tommy was ripping a cupboard door off the wall. Hefting it up, he stood over her- he was going to use the door as a bludgeon and knock her out. _I’ve seen enough fights to know that look._

But he had given her just enough time.Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she brought her leg up and rammed the sharp heel of her shoe into Tommy’s knee. He howled, and fumbled with the thick piece of wood almost dropping it. Miranda threw herself onto the wood and grabbed it, securing a weapon against Tommy. She turned the rectangular door so its sharp corner was facing out, and drove it forward like a battering ram. He tried to use her own move and kick her legs out from under her, but the door helped block her. Instead, she gouged him right below the collarbone with the corner of the door, drawing more blood. That wound was deep enough to make him feel pain, and he lost his footing. Then she grabbed him by the neck and landed one, two, hard punches to the jaw. Once her knuckles were bloody, he went down, eyes shut. Miranda was just grateful that her opponent wasn’t a vampire twice her size. Defeating James would definitely require a weapon, so for safety, she took Tommy’s ivory knife as well as her own. Panting from effort, she rallied herself to secure Tommy’s body and then go find James.

* * *

Dennis was looking for some other diversion after throwing the rock at the window. At that moment, John arrived, hatchet held before him like a shield. “Listen, I don’t wanna hurt you. Just leave now, ” John said. He’d spoken like a man who spent long hours watching action movies alone after his ugly divorce.

“You’re the one who should leave,” Dennis said firmly, gripping the knife tighter. “This is going to get a lot worse before the night is over.”

If this had all happened before his unexpected turn into the supernatural, John would have taken the easy way out and ran. But after everything he and Chuck had been through, he wasn’t about to give up. He swung the hatchet towards Dennis. It was enough to scare him and make him drop the knife- there was even a little cut on the man’s chin. John had only meant to strike fear into his opponent, but he decided to just react as if this had been his plan all along. “Run,” John said darkly. “Or I’ll keep going.”

Dennis turned tail and ran, holding the wrist of his sleeve against the cut on his chin. He was actually heading for the raised door in the backyard, which led to the cellar. He had to make sure his plan came off well and James didn’t suspect anything. As he squared off with John, Larry’s initiation was beginning.

* * *

James could hear the sounds of someone moving in the living room, but he knew Tommy would save him the honor of killing Miranda. And most importantly, he needed to turn his servant. So he walked silently into the basement, the bond leading him over to where Lawrence was waiting. He flicked on the bare bulb that swung over the prisoner’s head, the only source of light in the dark room. Larry looked ready to cry out in joy. He sat up, and held his arms out, signaling the hope that James would untie him.

The wound on James’s arm had stopped bleeding by this time. With a gentleness only Tommy had ever seen before, James removed Larry’s gag and touched the scar on his face. “Looks painful. Poor thing. But it’ll be gone soon,” he soothed. “We’re turning you.”

“Master,” Larry breathed, as if he could see everything that had ever tempted him about being turned- living forever; knowing that Ingrid had nothing to hold over him; the new highs of a victim’s blood and a naissant’s heart and soul. “Thank you…” James knelt before him and placed his hands on Larry’s shoulders, speaking in a lover’s tones. “I give you permission to find your first victim, and take their blood." Then he kissed him on the forehead.

“Thank you,” Larry panted. “Who do you want to be my first?”

“No time for that- I promised Tommy the armed one, and there’s no guarantee you’ll kill his partner. We need all hands on deck. Drink this,” he said, taking the chilled bottle of blood from a pocket inside his jacket. “It’ll count. Then, you keep Miranda away from-

Dennis ran down the stairs, panting. “You gotta go,” he said, pointing to the tiny cellar window. “They took my weapon. Someone’s fighting in there, I don’t know who, but you should get upstairs now.”

James whispered to Larry: “We’ll finish her off together. I know you’ll be right behind me.” As he dashed out he handed Dennis the amber bottle, barking: “Make sure he gets it all, and gets out there soon.”

As he walked over to Larry, Dennis knew he was about to effectively kill him. He might also be ending his own life, and the lives of the other men he had been living with for months. Naturally, he hesitated. But he knew he would not hesitate if he had the answer to one question, something that had been pressing at the back of his mind.

“Ok,” Dennis said, a little too forcefully. _Well,_ he thought, _serves him right if he_ ….no, he had to know, before he did something he could never undo. “Wait. Larry, we might die in a couple minutes. I have the blood right here.”

“Then what the hell are you waiting for?” Larry groaned. Dennis noticed the wound on his face didn’t look infected, but it looked as if it had been very painful. “Give it to me and I can get us both out of here.”

‘Tell me one thing first. Or I’ll drop it.” Even he was surprised at the words.

“Jesus. What’s gotten into you?” Larry whispered.

 _He could take my blood right now, does he realize that?_ Dennis thought. _But he’s not._ _Maybe my instincts are wrong. Maybe they’re not so bad._ “Tell me- was Tommy really in any danger, the night I killed that woman?”

“Do you even remember her name?” Larry asked, laughing bitterly. “Anything about her?”

“Just tell me!” Dennis cried. He held the bottle over the floor and grit his teeth, preparing to drop it. “You only have a few seconds. Tell me the truth or you get nothing.”

“No, okay?” Larry cried. “It was bullshit. It was to help you get over it. And guess what, you didn’t mind being a killer- or you wouldn’t be playing chicken with both our lives right now!”

Solemnly, Dennis held out the bottle. He tried to harden himself, seizing on the thought that things would work out, in the long run. “Take it. Drink it and then find James. I need to go help Tommy out.” Larry snatched the bottle in both hands and began downing it.


	20. Let the Last Word Be Mine on This Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scores are settled. Not a happy ending.

The tourniquet looked as if it would hold well enough, but Chuck was still feeling pain from the gunshot. He wasn’t sure if he should try to run away or try to get his weapon back- but both of those seemed likely to make his wound worse, so he stayed put while his ankles were held together by a length of chain. The man- there was something distinctly rough around the edges about him- put his gun to Chuck’s head and knelt beside him. “Don’t do anything stupid, now that I patched you up.”

“Why, so I’m in good shape to die?” Chuck said. “Jesus Christ.”

“They can tell you’ve never been up against anyone like them,” the other man said, as if teaching a child. “The stuff I’ve seen…they’re way beyond any of it. They never stop and they never lose. Even if you hadn’t come looking for us, he would have found a way to finish the job on your hand. They have my back. Are you sure anyone has yours?” Despite the bleak observation, Chuck’s face lit up, and his guard turned around to see John and his hatchet charging onto the scene. “I have a gun,” the man calmly replied. “Put that axe down or walk away.”

“No,” John told the gunman, even as he lowered the hatchet. “Please, just let him go. I think you must still be a regular person…am I right? You’re not like them. He’s my brother. You can understand that.” Chuck’s heart raced. John had been trying to put on a brave front ever since he cut his hand to test Miranda- sort of like when they had pretended to be tough as kids, to stand up to bullies. But this was more like the John he’d always known.

Todd cocked the shotgun. “You’ve got two seconds to get out.”

“Take me instead.”

“John, no!” Chuck cried, but the man turned and aimed the gun back towards Chuck, scowling. That did it. John leapt onto the man while his back was turned- he was throwing himself on top, kneeing him from behind. He pulled out his knife, but the postion made John fumbled and drop it. Meanwhile Todd, not wanting his gun to go off and harm himself –or Tommy’s intended victim- was forced to twist around awkwardly and dropped the gun. The three of them made an ungainly pile on the old, creaking porch. Chuck groaned as his brother and captor tussled. They bumped his injured arm, but he was able to kick the gun away from Todd. John darted forward and grabbed it. Rather than shoot his target, John began hitting the gunman’s head with the handle of the shotgun like a cudgel, until he collapsed. Panting, he finally looked over at his twin and said: “You all right?”

“What the hell were you thinking?” Chuck cried, trying to sit up. “He had a gun! It’s a miracle you weren’t shot, sneaking up on him like that!”

“I did ask him to take me instead,” John said quietly. The gunman’s face was bruised and bloody, and John looked uncertainly at what he’d done. He put the knife back on his belt and then picked the hatchet up. Only then did he step away from his victim.

“Come here, you idiot,” Chuck said, “and help me up. Christ, I love you.” His brother ran over and Chuck used his undamaged arm to embrace John, who then undid the chain from his ankles.

John was beaming. “Just glad you’re ok…” But he looked down at his brother’s arm. “Shit. We’ve gotta get you out of here. That’s not good…” But he saw that Chuck was looking through the porch window at the scene unfolding inside.

“Oh Jesus,” Chuck whispered. “Miranda found him.”

“Should we-“

“No, she needs to do it. There’s more of these guys,” Chuck said, his eyes peering out into the night. “We need to take care of them.”

* * *

The female vampire found the silver cigarette lighter in his Tommy’s pocket. She grabbed this and the ivory knife to hide them as a trophies- not for herself, but for Chuck, once she could find him. Quickly, she went upstairs to get the supplies they’d brought with them. Once she was equipped, she bound Tommy’s legs and arms with leftover zip ties and gagged his mouth. Miranda knew from her own strength, however, that these things wouldn’t hold a vampire forever. So she left Tommy in the kitchen broom closet and pushed an old rubber doorstopper underneath the door, to jam it shut. As she left him behind, there was a familiar tremor inside her. Yes, James must be near.She made sure her bladed weapons were securely on her person. This time, she would be ready. Instead of waiting for him to find her, she went to the front room to meet him. Had anyone been there to see this meeting, they never would have known she’d been a woman of the streets. She faced her enemy with the dignity of a queen, standing straight and proud. “Jimmy,” she said softly, as if cataloging him. “You never were going to be rid of me.”

“I know you’re here to kill me,” he said calmly. “And you know I’m still too powerful for you, so it won’t work. You could have come after me a long time ago, but you were afraid.”

“I think what frightened me most about you is that I made you what you are. Every one of your victims died because of me. I never turned anyone again. But even if you kill me now, at least I tried to stop you.” Her fists were clenched and she looked ready to come at him, swinging. 

“Ah, you still love to fight.” He seized her dancer's body and pinned her arms behind her. _He must have taught his servant that move,_ she thought. She railed her legs at him and tried to strike with her fists, wriggling all the while. Strong as she was, James was still much taller and more powerfully built. Her former lover laughed, sounding more smug than contemptuous. “I smell your blood. You can’t hide how you want me, little bird," James taunted, pressing his lips to her brow in a forceful kiss. 

"I want you dead," she growled. 

He pushed her down and then grabbed her, laughing throatily. One hand held her wrists, and he knelt over her to steady her. “Let’s see what you’re hiding. You know what to do- spread your legs.” He wrenched them open with both hands, grabbing her ankles. There, he found a knife tucked in her stocking. “I thought you knew better than that,” he chided. He went to grab the knife and throw it away when he felt a little itch on his forearm. He looked up and saw a bright stream of blood: his own blood streaming from a deep gash.

It didn’t hurt, but he was surprised since he’d found her knife. The surprise made him jerk his arm up, and there was her opening. She pushed her hand right up against his Adam’s apple. Only her reflexes would have been quick enough to do so. Miranda, like James, couldn’t feel cuts as more than an itch unless they were deep enough. With that in mind, she had jammed a razor blade- from the very pack John had used to test her- into her palm as a makeshift weapon. Right below her head line, just deep enough to hold it in place.

“Lying- bitch,” James coughed, little flecks of blood leaving his mouth.

Dropping the knife to try and save himself, James lashed out. He kept punching and kicking, even as blood was spurting from his throat. He was desperately trying to put his hand over the wound and staunch the flow, but this made about as much difference as a band-aid. Miranda let out a guttural cry as she slashed his neck again and again. The blade made all her movements clumsier, so once James fell, she wrenched the metal out of her hand. The pain was minimal and her wound would heal relatively soon. They both grabbed for the knife, but her wound was glancing so she got there first. She plunged the knife into his chest, and with her vampire’s strength, the blade found exactly what it was aiming for- James’s heart. He died with a silent howl, his face frozen.

“I started this. You know I had to finish it,” she whispered. She tore a strip off her dress to bandage her hand, and briefly peered down the hall at the closet where Tommy lay in wait. “Don’t you dare move, brat,” she muttered. Running towards the back door, she called: “Chuck? John?” No one answered her. There would be no need to cut off his head since she had destroyed the heart. But if they were to dispose of the bodies in the incinerator, the hatchet would be helpful- and Chuck would want to take care of the man who had almost killed him. She dragged James’s body to the hall closet, yanked out her knife, and went outside to search for her partners.

Soon after she left the house than Todd staggered in, from the back door. He heard a dull thudding in the broom closet and called, “James?”

“Me!” Tommy cried. “I can’t break this fucking door down; I wrenched my shoulder and my chest is fucked up too.” Quickly, Todd took the doorstopper out and freed Tommy, who had already escaped his bonds. He also had used the gag to try to slow the flow of blood on his chest. “You’ll be okay,” Todd breathed. “She cut you pretty bad; let me make sure that bandage stays put. Listen, we gotta find James-“

“He’s dead,” Tommy said. “I heard everything. I was going to give her to him once I got out, but she got to him first.”

His naissant was shocked, but his eyes were downcast. “Jesus. I didn’t think she’d get him. He was always so strong…”

“I heard it happen. But listen- she made the decision for us,” Tommy said. “We can have the life we want now. The change we want. We need to find Larry.”

* * *

Downstairs, one very startling change had already taken place. James’s naissant had gone completely feral. At the start, he’d immediately known something was wrong, and had staggered up the stairs and into the first-floor bathroom. He hadn’t even heard the fighting going on nearby. It was just before James had died, but this was no one’s idea of salvation. The transformation was as he remembered it: the higher instincts of his mind began burning out like ants under a lens, and the primal instincts took over: to fight anyone who opposed him, to sate hunger in all its forms. Still reeling, he looked in the mirror at what he was becoming. Last time, he had not seen the change, but now he stopped to examine his darkened, bloodshot eyes, the redness of James’s blood that drowned the pallor of his skin. He opened his mouth slightly and felt it water, blood staining his lips. His teeth had grown so much he could no longer properly close his mouth. New, jagged points emerged, gleaming underneath a film of blood. Lifting his hands, he saw they were no longer pale and finely shaped. The fingers were bony and had grown longer, skin stretched tight. Throughout his body, his veins had become grotesquely raised, snakelike and darkened nearly to black. Perhaps most startling of all were the long, twisted claws he had sprouted, weapons longing to rend and tear. This power had rewritten his very nature, far more than his bonding to James ever could, and although his reflection only showed a grimace of pain, his mind went into overdrive. _What am I?_ _I tried so hard to stop this from ever happening again_ , he thought. He could feel his senses leaving him- no, had he been careless? _Someone must have done something to the blood… Dennis. He knows I tricked him, he did this to get- get back at-_

Then for one long moment, there was total blankness; his mind was an echoing, empty cave. When he caught sight of himself again, his mind called out for blood- and for the bodies of his lovers, the only remnant of his old life his mind had held onto. Even his scar had disappeared, but it was easy to miss that with what he had turned into. He lightly pressed them to the mirror in a reverent kiss, finding himself beautiful. James been there, Lawrence would have laid a kiss on his hand. Instead he smiled at his new self, with thin, blue-black lips. There was a dim awareness that his sire might be nearby, but everything was overwhelming his senses- he needed a mortal to feed on, to hunt the way his kind were meant to. _Now_ , he thought, and bolted out by smashing the window nearby. He shook the broken glass off as if it were drops of rain.

* * *

“Did you hear that?” Tommy said, like a rabbit reacting to the sound of a gun. “It went by so quick…” He’d sensed James’s body and smelled death in the room where he’d died, and this had led the pair to discovering James’s corpse in the closet.

Todd was soberly studying James’s body, laid out on the living room floor before him. “Hear what?” He thought he had heard something break, but he’d been distracted, and knew that Tommy’s vampire senses were much keener than his own. “God, she almost tore his throat out. How does it go- when a vampire bleeds out, they’re too weak to move but don’t die? I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

“We should go check that noise out,” the vampire said, but Todd could see he was looking haggard. “Might have been Miranda- what if it was Larry? Why wouldn’t he come find us? Something’s not right,” Tommy muttered.

“It’s because James is gone,” Todd said softly. He had been the one to close James’s eyes, but now he moved the dead man’s arms to cross over his chest. “I feel like…well, I wanted to leave. He could be such a bastard when he wanted to, get us all running scared. But after everything we’ve been through together, this does feel _off_ -“

“We’d better get moving,” Tommy said, giving the body a perfunctory glance.

* * *

Chuck and John had heard a car door slam nearby, and they had followed the sound in hot pursuit. It was Dennis, whose shaky legs had carried him to the car, but couldn’t seem to let him start it. “Why the hell are you hiding out here?” John demanded. The shotgun was now his, and he clung to it. “You seemed human, so I let you go- and you just hid?”

“I’m gonna die anyway!” Dennis screamed. “The guy who took your hand, I’m bonded to him-“

“We know how it works,” Chuck said, pointing his gun in Dennis’s face through the car window. “Are you saying you want to die?”

“You need to get out of here,” Dennis began. The wail of a police siren was suddenly heard, very nearby. John’s head snapped up, seeing the flashing lights in the distance.

“That’s not good,” John said. “Guys, we should go check that out…”

“Look, I wanted to help you,” Dennis said. He was clearly hysterical, Chuck thought, based on his breathing. “I wanted to take out the ones I was with, so they didn’t hurt anyone else. But one of them’s all messed up. You need to kill him right away.”

“You mean he’s feral?” Chuck said. “Shit. Where’d you leave him?”

“The basement. He’s in the basement-“ The police siren stopped, as if time itself had stopped.

“Maybe not,” Chuck whispered, looking over his shoulder.

Someone had heard the earlier gunshots, and a police officer had parked on the lonely dirt road to investigate. The officer had been the first person to encounter the feral vampire and it hadn’t ended well: the man’s arm had been severed from his body. Larry, his senses totally gone, was several feet off to the side of the carnage, toying with the severed arm like a dog with a bone.

“Oh my god,” Todd whispered in horror, but Tommy was way ahead of him. He motioned for him to hang back over by the house fence.

“You’re not gonna live through something like this again unless I turn you,” the vampire hissed. “Look. He’s bleeding out but I can see him breathing. If we lure Larry away from the cop, you should be able to take some of the cop’s blood and turn.” Todd nodded and Tommy whispered: “I give you permission to find your first victim and take their blood,” and left a rushed but emphatic kiss on Todd’s forehead.

“Don’t fight him too much,” Todd warned. “You’ll make him angrier.”

“I’ll lure him away,” Tommy added reassuringly. Todd nodded and hung back, breathing hard and waiting for the best time to enter. The vampire walked up to his lover, now so altered, with false calm and confidence. “Larry?” The creature turned his head to face Tommy and smiled. The vampire’s mouth dropped open, but he quickly composed his face again. “Hi, Larry.”

“Baby?” Larry said in a rough whisper. Tommy walked over and tentatively stroked Larry’s head. Even as he tried to smile, the vampire worried his hand would be bitten off. “Wanna turn you,” Larry grunted, rubbing his head over Tommy’s chest as his lover petted him. “…s’good. Good.”

Larry shut his eyes in pleasure and Todd saw his chance- he ran over to the dying man. The naissant stuck two fingers out in the cop’s wound, and then brought his bloodied hand to his mouth and sucked. _Should be enough,_ Todd thought. _Has to be._ He felt something like a cluster headache, and then the unmistakable sensation of his teeth getting longer. But his mind remained sharp- in fact, as the pain passed, he seemed to be less weary and thinking more clearly than ever before. _Thank fucking god,_ Todd thought.

“That's right,” Tommy said coaxingly. He let out a long exhale and said: “Why don’t we just go down in the basement?”

The feral creature’s eyes snapped open at the word ‘basement’. But when he saw Tommy, the center of his focus changed. “ _Pretty,_ ” Larry whispered, the desire in his voice rising. He stared up at Tommy. “Kiss me,” he said, making the two words sound like a threat. Aquiescing, Tommy gingerly laid a kiss on the crown of his head. But this kiss didn’t seem to be enough for a feral creature’s sharper senses and heightened emotions to focus on. Instead, his senses darted over and focused on Todd. Larry growled at the sight of someone standing near his kill. But he stopped when he recognized his other lover. “Baby!” Larry said. He smiled at Todd, looking like a wolf faced with a flock of fat, very stupid sheep.

“Hey,” Todd said, baring his fangs while trying to smile. It was gawky, no matter how hard Todd tried to look charming. “Easy now, Lar...we’re gonna take care of you, okay?” His sight seemed to sharpen. Todd thought that might be his eyes changing color as he looked over at Tommy, who was also feigning a smile. The look in their eyes was unmistakable, reading: _How are we going to kill him, before he kills us?_ Then, out of the shadows, a bolt flicked through the air. It looked almost like silver lightning and moved dangerously close to them. A metallic noise followed. It was Miranda, flicking Todd’s chain like a whip- the one he had used to tie up Chuck. Larry sprung at her, but Miranda’s reflexes, heightened strength, and the strength of the chain around his neck were enough to take him by surprise and keep him at a distance. She had lassoed him into submission.

“You weren’t kidding about being tied up,” she hissed, tightening the chain with both hands around the feral man’s neck. Her quarry continued growling and snarling at her, and now she had two vampires staring her down for control of him.

“Give him to us,” Tommy demanded. “We can control him. He’ll just kill you anyway!”

‘Your master is dead, and turning _him_ ,” she said, nodding toward Todd, “won’t bring James back. I know you want to fight, but help me cut the feral’s head off first. You know you’re no safer from him than I am.”

Tommy sneered. “You’re out of-“ He was going to end with, ‘your mind, but Todd stopped him.

“We can’t let him run wild,” Todd protested. He glanced over at the feral man, and shook his head. “I hate to say it, but maybe she’s right?”

“Lower your voice,” Tommy hissed. “He’ll hear you.” Someone had heard already: Chuck, now arriving on the scene. Dennis was walking behind him, holding the hatchet, and John brought up the rear, with his gun aimed at Dennis’s back.

“Boys!” Miranda called. “Give me your hatchet, we’ve got a feral one here!”

“We don’t want more cops coming,” Chuck said, looking around warily. “Jesus,” he whispered on seeing the feral man, who was still growling and snarling. But then he looked over at Tommy, and they recognized each other. Their eyes met, Chuck’s still shielded behind dark glasses.

“I remember you, too,” Tommy told Chuck, giving him a wry little smile. John couldn't tell whether this man was going to kiss Chuck or rip off his other hand.

“Fuck you,” Chuck said coldly.

“Oh, you wish,” Tommy laughed. Larry made a whimpering noise in his direction, and Tommy looked at him with disgust. Todd went to try and calm the creature who had once been his friend and lover. He stretched his hand out and Larry regarded it with curiosity, only to start hungrily snapping at him. The newest vampire drew back in fear as the feral man darted forth again and again, trying to snap the chain.

Tommy grabbed Miranda by her hair and shielded himself behind her. “It’s over. Todd, grab the chain -“

‘No! Throw me the hatchet, Chuck,” Miranda cried, trying to fight off Tommy while she held the chains. Tommy clipped her on the jaw with his fist, but since he wasn’t a great deal taller than her, she was able to grab the chain with one hand and elbow him where it hurt- the one type of pain no one is immune to. As the vampire clutched himself in pain, Chuck used his good arm to grab Tommy and pull him away from the fray. He was unsteadily grasping his gun with his bad arm. The two immediately began struggling for control of the weapon.

Todd was running toward John, looking ready to end the battle by any means necessary. John prodded Dennis with the gun, and the naissant handed the hatchet back to its rightful owner. With one hand, John did the best he could to toss it to Miranda, who caught it by the blade.She grit her teeth, gripped the weapon properly as a little blood flowered from her hand. Finally she tried to charge at the feral man while still holding his leash. “Hold still, you son of a bitch!” she screamed. And then Dennis looked around. No one was protecting him, but no one was going to stop him, either. He ran up to her and took hold of Larry’s chain. As he struggled, he tried not to get bit. “What the hell are you doing?” Miranda whispered.

“I made this happen!” he cried. “Let me help you. We can kill him-“ At this, Larry charged at Dennis, knocking him to the ground and making both parties drop the chain. Evidently, Larry had no plans to leave this life anytime soon. He was about to seize Dennis’s throat and start ripping, when Miranda came to Dennis’s rescue. She screamed: “Come and get me!” at the feral man, and swung her weapon like she was throwing the hammer at the Olympics. He sprang up to try and overpower her. The force of his jump towards her was so great that Dennis cried out when the tail of the chain hit him.

As the feral man rushed at her, Miranda swung her weapon again and the metal hatchet sank into his neck. It looked even worse when she pulled her hatchet out, ready for round 2. Larry, once so alive, was not only dead but a stranger in death- his form had remained feral even after he expired. _It can’t be this easy,_ she thought as the blood sprayed from his wound. She could see the line where his head would fully detach from the body-the wound had to have been enough. _So why did he stay down, but not change back when he died?_ Something knocked her down- Tommy. She looked over to where the struggle was still going on behind her.

Chuck and Tommy were attacking each other with all they had, almost like fights Todd had seen on the street. Tommy had exploited Chuck’s weak spot instantly, wrenching his thumb into the bullet wound and forcing Chuck to drop the gun. He looked ready to sink his teeth into the injured arm, but it appeared his earlier fight had weakened him too- Chuck kicked his legs out from under him. He wanted to keep Tommy on the ground, and so he quickly put his boot to Tommy’s neck to keep him in place. “Think you’re real cute, don’t you?” Chuck hissed. But his own inexperience was showing- Tommy was able to strike at the other leg and knock him down. Soon Chuck had fallen on top of his bad arm. He tried to rise and throw Tommy off, but the man had already sunk his teeth into his good shoulder, beginning to drink.

After a long struggle, John was finally able to shoot Todd in the side, and the newest vampire stalked off into the woods, balling his fist into the bullet wound. John went to go chase him, but suddenly realized his brother was in trouble. “You helped her,” he whispered to Dennis. “You think you can do it again?” Dennis nodded. John, with his last bullet, shot at the vampire with no effect- it landed in the vampire’s thigh, and all Tommy did was moan, looking up like he was annoyed. In frustration, John threw himself on the vampire to divert him away from Chuck. They began tussling on the ground. Miranda looked ready to step in, but Chuck stopped her.

“Let me save him,” Chuck panted. “You had a score to settle and finished it, so I’ll settle mine.” She nodded and instead, stopped to pick up both guns so they didn’t fall into the wrong hands. The vampire hunter struggled to get to his feet as Tommy began biting into John’s leg.

“Chuck, hit his chest and shoulder,” Miranda yelled “I weakened him there! Right side!” Chuck began beating Tommy’s right shoulder- and the spot where he now saw a bandage peeking through- with his good fist. The vampire screamed in pain and sank to the ground. John sprang up and ran to his brother’s side, the two of them going into fighting stances as the vampire struggled to his feet.

“Fucking slut,” Tommy said to Miranda after he could finally stand upright.

“So are you,” she sneered. She aimed the shotgun at his chest and Tommy froze, his hands up.

“Take this!” a voice off to the side cried. Dennis tossed Chuck the hatchet, and Tommy looked at his servant with murder in his eyes. “You’ve gotta stop,” Dennis whispered to Tommy.

Tommy turned to face him, looking at the man he had once treated like a prized possession as if he were dirt under his feet. “Idiot! You’ll die too!” Tommy snarled. “What are you trying to do, spite me? Be a martyr?”

“I thought you would love me. I thought that would be all that mattered- but I don’t think you love anyone. Not even James,” he said. “Do you miss him at all?”

“Why did I even bother with you?” Tommy sighed. The sigh became a drawn-out gasp, then a sickening hiss like the air being let out of a balloon. One swing with his good hand and Chuck’s hatchet had lodged itself in the back of Tommy’s neck. The vampire sank to his knees, then lurched forward as Chuck yanked the axe out.

“I got you,” John said, running to support Chuck’s bad arm. Together, they lifted the hatchet and with one last swing, they severed the blonde head from its body. Chuck cried out in relief and let his brother support his body as the adrenaline finally rushed out of him.

As Tommy’s head left his body, Dennis had sunk down on all fours, blood streaming from his mouth and eyes. With great effort, he raised his head and met Chuck’s eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered. He fell forward, and Chuck stepped back. The vampire hunter felt almost as if he should bow his head or say a prayer…then he realized he should clean up the nearby headless corpse first. Respectful gestures could wait that long.

* * *

_Coda_

Miranda nodded at the headless corpse. “Well done, for your first try. Both of you. You’ve been very brave.”

Chuck shook his head. “Don’t mention it. We never would’ve pulled it off without you. But I don’t feel safe, somehow. One of them is still out there.”

“I feel it too. Where’s John?”

John walked out of the overgrowth, looking pale and bewildered. “He got away. Guys, I’m so sorry…I just don’t know where he went. He’s probably not going back to their hideout. He’s onto us.”

Miranda’s eyes narrowed, but she paused and composed herself. “It’s all right, John. We went through hell to even get here. It was never going to be perfect. And you two certainly learned more than enough for next time.”

“I’ll be ready for him,” John said gravely. “And anyone else he finds.”

“Yeah,” Chuck said softly. John was already looking toward next time, he thought, no more fear or hesitation. He was proud of his brother. The vampire hunter surveyed the carnage all around them, and said at last: “What did you do with James’s body?” 

“I was going to take him to the incinerator, and we can leave them there too,” Miranda said. “Better yet, we leave out some of the cop’s stuff and their stuff, make sure they know Larry did it. That way we lead the cops on a dead-end trail, away from us. They’ll know the perp’s dead. They might not care about anything else.”

“We sure have our work cut out for us,” John said.

“At least we’re working,” Chuck said. He stopped to pick up Tommy’s head, and his brother winced. “We’ll get rid-“

“Fucking hell, it’s gone,” Miranda cried. “We look away for _one second!”_

“But it’s-“ Chuck looked and saw she meant that one of the other bodies was gone- the feral man’s, Larry’s. It had been there seconds ago, but now there was no trace of it except some blood on the grass. “Jesus, Larry’s gone. It ... must have been the one who got away.”

“But the guy who shot you couldn’t be that fast, dragging a body!” John argued. “We’d have noticed- especially you, Miranda.”

“Unless he wasn’t really dead,” Miranda whispered. “And he got up and walked off.”

“Whoa, slow down. Let’s say that guy did steal the body,” Chuck said, his pitch shifting into anxiety. “What could he do with it?”

“I don’t know,” Miranda said. “But we can’t let him figure it out.”

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Carmen, my partner in fandom crime. This is quite a bit like "Interview with the Vampire" in some places, but I didn't intend for it to be a direct adaptation or ripoff. JY is German because in a relatively recent interview, he was speaking German to Alexa. The Stygian Grotto is a real place, and I thought the name was funny. Tommy's a sailor because of the "Lights" performance they did on German TV.  
> Ingrid is named after the actress Ingrid Pitt, who was in a lot of 70’s vampire movies like “Countess Dracula,” so if you wonder what my character looks like, check her out. I tried to model Miranda's appearance after Broadway actress Amber Gray. I love animals, but as a noted author once said: “I’m at a loss as to how to write a villain who does not do villainous things.” So I am sorry if the consumption of animals offended anyone. Chuck's biography proves he is more of a badass in real life than I could ever write about him being, so check that out. Todd’s backstory is based on the Hollister Motorcycle Riot of 1947, but exaggerated.  
> 


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